My Whole World, It Begins and Ends With You
by HalebFanfictions
Summary: As every relationship changes and evolves, it tells a story unlike no other. Either a story of lifelong love, or a story of love and loss, and it is no different for Caleb and Hanna. This is their story...well my version of their story. DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING (CHARACTERS, SCENARIOS, LOCATIONS ETC.) FULL CREDIT TO THE AUTHOR, AND ALL WRITERS ASSOCIATED WITH PLL.
1. Chapter 1

_"It is a cloudy, but overall pretty awesome day for Rosewood, at least it is for August."_

Hanna thought as she sat parked in spot at the park in the center of her hometown. With the windows down in her Lexus and Kindle in hand she relaxed as she sat patiently waiting. She looked up from her Kindle to glance at her phone, no notifications. She looked at the dashboard, which read 12:45 P.M.

 _"_ _Where is he?"_

She looked around the parking lot. She had pulled in and went to the far corner of the lot to park so that they wouldn't be bothered by passersby. There was 3 other cars parked there, but they had been vacated by their owners who were sitting on the benches watching their little ones run and play at the playground area of the park. She glanced around taking in her surrounding, a habit she had gotten used to over the years of living in the city, and all her teenage years of A torture in this very place. A quick glance into her rear view mirror and all was good. She looked back down at her phone still noticing no notifications and sat it back down into her cup holder.

 _"_ _He is never late…forgetful maybe, but never late…not for something this."_

She picked up her phone again with a sigh and slid the button open to the home screen. She glanced around and back in her mirror again and hesitated to call or text him. He was 30 minutes late and she had to catch a plane in just a few short hours for a work conference in California. Her finger hovered over his contact in her phone book. There was a familiar ache in her stomach that she got when she began to worry.

 _"_ _What if something has happened to him? He usually calls if he happens to be late, which isn't often... Maybe he had gotten hung up at work and forgotten…no, he called earlier today to make sure he had the plan down. Maybe I should text him…just in case…? Geez Hanna, slow your roll. He's coming. Maybe he had just forgotten the time."_

Worrying had become something that Hanna did on a daily basis…it was all normal to her anymore. She looked around at the other cars to make sure she hadn't missed anything before she talked herself into a checkup text. Just as she had grabbed her it vibrated in her hand. She looked down at the screen and there he was, right on time. She opened her phone so she could read the text.

 **Caleb: So sorry. Ran into traffic & had to detour. Just now moving again. Be there in 10.**

She smiled to herself and looked in the mirror one more time. She knew that there was no way he forgot about meeting her. She almost felt a little dumb for even thinking such a thing.

She hit the text screen to reply:

 **Okay. Don't rush, already here but I've got time to wait.**

She hit the send button and as she heard the swoosh sound of the message sending she laid her head back on the head rest and looked back into the backseat.

"Hey bug, Daddy is running a little late, but he is almost here. Okay?"

She said to their 5 year old daughter Kenzie totally consumed in watching Doc McStuffins on her iPad.

"Ooooookay mommy!" she said, not even looking up from the screen.

Hanna smiled to herself and looked back out the windshield. Her phone buzzed and she saw his name on the screen again. She slid the screen open to her text screen

 **Caleb: I'm trying to get there. Han, I am so sorry. I promise I am trying. This traffic is a bitch.**

She replied:

 **Seriously no big deal! Kenz is wrapped up in the iPad, so we are just waiting.**

She hit send and watched as the reply bubble pop up on her text screen showing he was already replying.

 **Caleb: See you soon!**

She opened her Kindle again, and began reading to kill the time. Fifteen minutes later, just as she was ending the chapter she was on, she looked up and saw the Jeep turning in the parking lot.

"Kenz, look!" she yelled excitedly and pointed towards his car "Look who's here!"

She looked back at her child and watched as she peeled her eyes off her iPad screen and looked in the direction of all her mom's commotion. Her eyes immediately lit up and it was followed by loud excitement as their toddler squealed.

"DADDYYYY!"

Hanna smiled at their daughters delight over the arrival of her father. Hanna unbuckled her seat belt and opened up the drivers' side door.

"Hey." She said as she glanced in his direction as he put his car in park a couple spots over from hers.

Caleb hadn't aged a bit since high school. He was still the tall, dark and handsome man he had always been. One thing had changed though; he was more than just the bad boy hacker– turned sensitive hunk that she had fallen in love with all those years ago. He was more. Now, he was all those things and the father of her child.

"Hey." he replied as he got out of his Jeep and straightened his shirt and put his phone in the front pocket of his jeans.

Closing in the distance between them, he looked right past her and into the back seat of her dark gray SUV. She followed his line of sight to see the shadow of her bouncing around in the backseat through the tin on her windows. She turned back to him and met his eyes, offered him a soft smile and turned to make her way around to the passenger side to open the door to help Kenzie out of her booster seat. Hanna opened up the door, only to find that the toddler had already unbuckled her straps and was climbing down before she could even get to her. Kenzie climbed down out of the car and squealed again as she started to run towards her father.

"Daddy! Daddy!" she yelled as she ran towards him.

Caleb stopped and bent down on his knee and smiled. "Hey Bug!" he yelled back at her as he opened his arms for her to land in "Daddy needs a hug!" She ran straight into them and he wrapped his arms around her and stood up, swinging her back and forth as they stayed embraced.

He absolutely glowed with excitement and love when he had her. She loved to see the way he interacted with Kenzie. She always knew that he would be a good father. With everything that he had been through and not really having any real parents growing up and finding them when it was pretty much too late to salvage a childhood memory or two with them. No offense to his mom or Jamie, they made up for it in their own time, but Caleb really needed a parent like he was to Kenzie, at her age.

"Gosh, I have missed you so much" he said as he pulled back and wiped the stray hairs from her face "We're gonna have so much fun! You excited?"

"I missed you daddy! FUN FUN FUN." she said with her head buried in his neck. She threw her arms back around his neck and tightened her grip. "FUN FUN FUN" she yelled.

They couldn't help but laugh at their daughter. She was always so excited and hyper…and loud. She was definitely part Hanna Marin. Mostly, she was her father's daughter to a tee. She was a little taller for her age like he had been growing up, and she had dark complexion and to die for cheek bones. She had Hanna's blonde waves which were pulled up into pigtails complete with large hot pink bows on each one. She also had her attitude and Hanna now knew what the phrase "Paying for your raising" meant. Kenzie loved her clothes and Hanna swore that she had a purse for EVERY outfit she owed. She could also work an Apple product better than Hanna ever could. She was her father, in smaller little girl form.

Most of all, she had Caleb's eyes. His large almond shaped chestnut brown eyes. Every time Hanna looked at her daughter, she saw Caleb. Sometimes it hurt more than others. Some days she looked at her and it filled her heart with so much joy that he was her father and that they had taken some of the best love they had ever made, and created a something so perfect. Then there were some days that seeing her father in her eyes, reminded her that the perfect life she always wanted for them, all three of them was not what came. Instead it was replaced with every other weekend and holiday and extra times when it was possible. She wouldn't trade having Kenzie with Caleb for the world, it was all she had wanted since the moment she knew she loved him. Getting married, having babies, house with a white picket fence, and a dog. Happily ever after…

These were moments always cut her to the core. She wanted so badly for them to be a family again. That's what was so tragic about these small visits. For a very short amount of time, in her mind…she imagined that they were a family. That he had never left, and that he still loved her as much as she still loved him.

Love was never the problem between the two of them, it was time, and careers, and egos. They loved deeply and for so long, it was just them against the world. They fought tooth and nail for their entire relationship. Against California, and Ravenswood, and A.. She took that for granted. Everything that they had fought through was something beyond their control. Slowly but surely she sabotaged their relationship thinking that they could always work it out. Five blocks in the pouring rain, one halfway empty closet and a cellphone left on the table later, she realized that you can only stress a relationship so much before it broke into a million tiny pieces, taking every piece of heart with it.

She loved him still, there was no denying that. She still got the butterflies in her stomach when she saw him and those multiplied by a million when she saw what a good father he was to their daughter. When they made eye contact she could feel her heart jump into her throat, and although they haven't actually touched in years, but she was sure if they did fire would fill her body. She kept all these things to herself though.

A shine caught her eye and she glanced down at his hand. There it was. His wedding band. Catching her eye as a sick reminder that things would not as she imagined, they were not a family. At least not a happily ever after family, they were two exes that made something wonderful and one moved on to their own happily ever after with someone who treated their daughter as one of her own, while the other held on to letting go. He had moved on and found love with someone else, and she was happy he was happy…and unhappy that he was happy with someone other than her.

She held onto the door handle of the car and tried to fight back the lump in her throat that had started to form. Caleb opened his eyes and noticed Hanna standing back at her car, eyes on the ground. She glanced up at him and caught his eye…he nodded towards the park.

"Got time to let her play some? We can work plans out?" he asked

"Um, yeah, just let me grab my keys and my phone." She said and turned back towards the car. She pulled the keys out of the ignition and grabbed her phone. She locked the car and headed towards them still standing there.

"Hey bug, you wanna go play with the other kids for a few minutes while mommy and I talk?" he asked her.

She looked up from his neck and smiled at him "YES!" she said and wiggled for him to let her down.

He bent down to sit her lightly on her feet and as soon as they hit the pavement she took off towards the slides. Caleb laughed at her and looked back to Hanna as she was walking towards him.

"Let her get some of that energy out before our long drive back to the house." He said as they walked towards the benches.

"Good plan. Thank you for meeting me out here, Caleb. I really appreciate it" she said as they reached the benches and sat down.

"It's no problem really. I like the drive out here anyway. Ya know, nostalgia." He replied.

Caleb lived about an hour north of Rosewood, which was closer to Hanna's house than here and would've actually been more convenient for them to meet somewhere between the two. Since her mother was taking her to the airport, so she wouldn't have to leave her car there she did have to make the drive here anyway so she had asked him to drive an hour out of his way to meet her.

They sat in silence for a while, just watching their daughter as she slid down the plastic slide giggling, and then hopped up when she reached the bottom and hurried around to climb the latter to go down again. They both smiled in her direction.

"So, I will have her until next week? What day will you be coming back into town?" he asked as he turned his stare towards her.

Hanna kept her eyes on her fingers knotted in her lap, never meeting his glance, "Yeah, I will be back here on Saturday. Is that okay? If that doesn't work for you, you can always get mom to meet you and pick her up." She finally glanced up at him as he watched Kenzie slide for the fourth time. "Her and Ted will be here if you need them to watch her."

"Nah, it will be fine. I'll enjoy the extra time with her before school starts in a couple weeks." he said.

Hanna watched him as the excitement of being with his daughter lit up his face. She smiled to herself. He loved Kenzie, and that made Hanna smile inside. Things had been so screwed up with them these last couple of years, but him loving their daughter as much as he did, made Hanna feel like it would all work out for the best.

"She is really excited to spend time with you. She talked herself to sleep last night telling me a bedtime story about all the fun things you were gonna do together…including ice cream for dinner?" she said in a playfully scorning tone and she turned her head to look at Caleb.

"Yeahhhhh, about that" he said with a laugh and glanced at her "Kids they have such a good imagination."

"I bet" she deadpanned.

"I let her have a scoop one time for dinner, and she has never let me forget it. Don't worry, she won't be getting ice cream for dinner…"

"Hey, you got her for a week. You get her hyped up on sugar; you're the one that has to pay for it"

They sat and watched as she played with the other kids that were still in the park, talking about the coming schedules and who would pick her up on what days from school.

"Oh, and mom took her swimming the other day, and she came home with an ear ache. I packed her medicine in her bag though. She just needs two drops in her…well, you know what to do." She said with an awkward laugh "either way, directions on the bottle."

"Oh, and the doctor also gave her something for her allergies too. Just give them to her if they start acting up. We've been dealt fits with the weather changing. She just gets stuffy and her eyes get a little puffy. I packed those too."

"Hanna, I have done this before" he said with a laugh, "She'll be fine. We take real good care of her. She will eat, and play and she will get her medicine when she needs it. And I won't send her back with a tattoo or piercing, I promise."

They shared a small laugh.

"I know. It's just…" she looked back towards her daughter who was now in the sandbox with a copper top little boy, who was throwing sand everywhere.

 _"Great! Sand in her hair. Lovely!"_

Slightly distracted by the thought of what a mess that would be, she fell silent.

"Let me guess, you're so worried because this time you won't be just right down the road this time, right?"

She looked up to the sky to try and fight the overwhelming tears that formed and burned the corner of her eyes.

"Well please don't, she will be fine. I swear. Scouts honor." he reassured her.

"I know you can take care of her. That's not what I worry about. It's just that I will be on the other side of the freakin country. That's…I don't know how many miles away, it is but it's a lot. And I tried to get out of this as many times as I could without getting fired and I really can't afford to get fired. And…and I just feel bad for leaving and going so far away from her. What if..."

"Just breathe and calm down. One, you're an amazing mother. Second, work happens, there isn't anything you can do about that. And trust me; I have seen firsthand how demanding the fashion business can be."

 _"Ouch Rivers!"_

She winced inwardly at the thought. She knew it was an intentional jab at her. She couldn't blame him though.

"Yeah." was all she could muster up to say.

They sat in silence and kept both sets of eyes on their daughter. Occasionally she would yell for them to watch as she did something like go down the slide on her stomach or jump off the swings. Hanna glanced down at her watch and noticed the time was nearing 2:00 PM.

"Well, I better get to going. My plane leaves at 5, and I have got a lotta crap still left to do." She said in his direction. "Bug! Come on, we got to get your stuff out of the car for you to take to daddys!"

"Awe, mom!" she yelled in protest.

"Yeah, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. We will never get her out of here now." He said as he stood from the beach.

"Kenz, come on! We have to head out so we can.." he stopped and looked over his shoulder at Hanna and whispered "Watch this" and then turned back to her and yelled "stop and get ICE CREAM on our way back to the house." He emphased the words ICE CREAM to get her attention; it worked and she gasped and jumped down from the ladder going to the slide and ran in their direction and launched herself up into his arms.

"Works every time" he said in a whisper with a laugh as he pulled the front of the hot pink polka dot shirt she had on over the top of her once white, now a slightly tan tinted pants. Hanna always used her fashion sense to keep her child in the loop with all the newest fashion trends.

Hanna couldn't help but smile. They walked back to their cars, she hit the unlock button and popped the hatch on her car to get the little suitcases out of the back.

"Hey, I got those" he said as he sat Kenzie down on her feet and reached for the bags.

He grabbed two of the five bags out of the car and walked towards his Jeep with them.

"Hanna, how much stuff did you pack for her? She's staying a week, does it really require ALL of this?"

Hanna rolled her eyes.

"Hey, we have this conversation EVERY TIME. Girls gotta have her stuff!" she said in her defense.

She grabbed a small Coach bags out of the back and bent down to hand it to Kenzie "Here bug, take this over to daddy."

Kenzie grabbed the bag and ran over to Caleb as he stood next to the Jeep. When she got to him and excitedly held it up for him to put in the car. Once he had taken the bag from her, she ran back over to her mom as she was opening the back door to retrieve the little iPad, purse, and teddy bear for Kenzie. She turned around and handed all the items to her and watched as she waddled back over to the Jeep and threw the things in the floorboard in front of her booster.

Hanna shut the door and walked over to where Caleb was packing the things in the back of the Jeep with two bags slung over her shoulder. When she handed the bags over to him she held onto one in particular and handed it over to him carefully "This is the one with the medicines in it…just so you don't have to go searchin."

She bent down and scooped the little girl up waiting at their feet.

"Bug, you be a good girl for daddy okay? I will facetime you every night, I promise." She said as she hugged her tight to her chest. "Mommy is going to miss you." She whispered.

"Imma miss you mommy!" she said with a tight hug around her mom's neck.

Hanna stood there and held for a long time. She glanced over the little girls shoulder and saw Caleb standing there watching her. When he noticed her looking, he gave her a sympatric smile. She knew that he understood what this was like. He did it every other week. She gave her daughter one last squeeze, kissed her on her cheek and turned to buckle her into her booster as Caleb stood right behind her, his arm resting above her head on the opened door. She bent down and gave Kenzie a kiss on the forehead.

"I love you bug!" she whispered through threatening tears.

The little girl yawned and said "I wuv you mommy, too!" and Hanna kissed her on her forehead.

She ruffled the little wavy blonde hair that was once pigtails, now they were messily all over her head. She stood up and closed the door and watched through the window as Kenz got settled in her seat, knowing all too well that she would be asleep before they ever hit the highway. She wiped the tear from her eye and turned towards Caleb.

"Will you let me know when you make it back?"

"Of course" he said with a nod

"I will call later tonight when I land, if that's okay."

"Absolutely fine. We should be up. If not, I will definitely call you in the morning when we wake up."

"Okay. Thank you." She glanced back towards the car, to fight the tears that once again threatened.

"Well, I guess I better get on my way. I still have to go by moms."

She started towards her car, and he had jumped into the driver side of his. She glanced back over her shoulder and called out "Hey, you be careful. My whole world is in that car!" she said with a smile.

He returned her smile and said "Yes ma'am." He glanced into the back seat and said "Mine too. Bug, tell mommy bye and we will call her later."

"Bye Mommy! Call ya later!" she said with a wave.

Hanna waved back, calling "Bye Kenz!" and she blew her a kiss. She turned and looked in the direction of the drive "Bye."

"Bye!" he said with a small wave.

She climbed into the driver side seat of her car and watched as he turned the key and put his car in drive. She turned the key in hers as well, but she didn't move. She watched as his tail lights pulled out towards the road.

Once he had pulled out of the parking lot, she let out the breathe that she had apparently been holding and let the tears fall from her eyes like they did every time they met. She sat collected her thoughts as she watched the best thing that had ever happened to either of them ride away, with the only love she ever knew behind the wheel. She knew that things could be a lot worse and that they were lucky it was as easy as it was, even though it was far from easy. She wiped the tears from her eyes, put the car in drive and turned the wheel towards her old childhood home.

 _If only things could be different…_


	2. Chapter 2

Hanna pulled up outside her mom's house, put her car in park and let you a heavy sigh. She reached over into the passenger seat and scrambled to get all her stuff together and stuffed back into her purse. She grabbed her folder that held her itinerary for the trip and looked over it quickly before shoving into her bond leather planner and zipped up the side. She grabbed her phone out of the cup holder and hit the home screen to see No Notifications

 _Girlfriend, you need to chill out. They aren't even out of the city yet. He will text you when he is parked in his driveway. You don't him texting and driving._

She huffed, threw her phone in her bag and slung it on her shoulder. She got out and grabbed her suitcase out of the hatch and made her way inside. Once she reached the foyer she sat her bags down by the stairs and headed up to her room. Although it still looked like her old room, it was now filled with all of Kenz's toys for when she spent the night or came for visits. Hanna flopped backwards onto the bed and laid there looking at the ceiling.

 _Why does this always have to be so hard?_

She pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to shake some of the thoughts running around in her brain.

 _You know what makes bad moods better? CARBS!_

With that she got off the bed and wondered downstairs. Looking through the cabinets, she saw nothing that would catch her eye. Opening the refrigerator, it was packed full of all healthy foods.

 _Well, this is a bust._

Opening up the freezer she saw a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey. Picking it up, and walked over to the silverware drawer and slung it open. Taking a spoon out of the drawer and closing it back, she took a seat at the bar and started to shovel the sugar into her mouth. Halfway through her pint, she heard the door open and close. Any other time, she would've tried to hide the evidence of her binge, this time she didn't care who saw or what they said about it.

She heard the click click click of heels on the tile that let her know it was her mother. Fiery red hair came into her side view.

"Hey Hanna. You're early! I wasn't expecting you until..." she glanced up from her phone to see her daughter sitting with her head propped up on one hand, spoon midway to her mouth with a huge chuck of ice cream at the end. She knew what this meant.

"What's wrong?" she asked as she made her way over to the bar, peeking over into the container before coming to stand in front of Hanna.

Without ever looking up from her spoon Hanna says "You know how shitty it is to love a happily married TO SOMEONE ELSE man? To have to see him all happy with his new happy life, while you envy and really friggin like his wife..." she said as she took the bit and dropped her spoon back into the carton. "Can't even hate on her. What kind of crap is that? Haters NEED to hate, and can't. Bullshit."

"Yeah, actually I do."

Hanna looked up at her mother and rolled her eyes.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself." she said as she took the carton from in front of her.

"Hey, I wasn't done with that." Hanna protested as her mother made her way over to the trash can opened the lid and tossed it in.

"Yes, you are." she said as she turned around and grabbed two glasses and a bottle of wine from the counter and turned back to her daughter "Let's go wine it out on the patio." she said with a raise of her eyebrows.

"Mom, I can't have any before I meet Estelle at the airport." she said following her mom out the patio doors and to the small bistro set positioned in the corner.

"Just one. We have like..." looking down at her phone for the time "an hour or so maybe before we have to leave. Come on Han. It will be therapeutic…you can tell me what's really been bothering you about Caleb."

"Fine." Hanna said as she grabbed a glass and held it out to her mother. "Fill'er up bartender"

Ashley smiled at her daughter and popped the cork on the bottle.

Fifteen minutes later her phone buzzed on the table. Hanna sat her glass down and quickly grabbed at her phone and hit the home screen. There was a text from Caleb. She slid the button open to her text screen. It was a picture of the backseat of his Jeep with Kenz, passed out in her booster with her mouth hanging open hair all over her head and face. The caption read

 **See mom, no ice cream tonight!** with a thumbs up emoji.

It vibrated again.

 **We've made it home, btw.**

Hanna smiled and turned the phone around to show her mom. They exchanged laughs at how adorable Kenzie was. She quickly typed out a reply.

 **I knew she would be out before you got home. Leaving out shortly. Will call or text when I land. Give Kenz a hug and kiss for me.**

With that she looked at the time and informed her mom that it was time for them to head onto the airport. She gathered her things and they were off. When she arrived at the airport she met up with Estelle and they checked their luggage and made their way to board the plane. Once they were comfortably in her seats Hanna pulled out her book and continued to read. She didn't do very well with flights so the distraction was nice.

A few short hours later they were landing in California. Once they had landed and they – they being Hanna waited for their luggage at Baggage Claim. She gathered all their things and went to find Estelle waiting for the car they had arranged to pick them up.

"Hanna dear, where is the car?" she asked `looking around.

"I booked a Town Car to be here by now. Let me call and find out where it is." Hanna said as she rolled her eyes.

Pulling her phone out of her bag she checked around one more time. Just as she looked to her right another car was pulling out to see a man standing next to a black car holding a sign that read "Giovanni/Marin".

 _Oh thank god for small favors!_

"There they are Estelle!" she said as she pointed in the direction of the car. She had started to roll their luggage towards the man standing when he noticed her struggling with all the bags. He stepped forward

"Ms. Marin?" he asked as he reached out for the bags.

"Hi! Yes sir." She said as he took the handle and started to roll the bags towards the car.

Once they got in, she informed the driver what hotel they were staying and waited as they pulled off into traffic. Sitting back in her seat she let out a big sigh and checked the time 8:25.

 _Damn! Well, won't be talking to them tonight._

"So, Hanna what is your plans for this evening? Want to grab a drink or two?" Estelle asked as she fixed her makeup.

"No Estelle. I think once we get checked in I am going to call my daughter and then hit the bed. We've got an early start in the morning." she said as she pulled her planner out to see what their first meeting time was.

"We have a breakfast meeting at 8 AM, then we have a meeting with some other designers at 11" she informed her boss and closed and zipped her binder back up. "Want me to give you a 7 AM wakeup call?"

"That would be fabulous! Thank you so much Hanna. I don't know what I would do without you."

"That's what I am here for Estelle." She said with a slight smile.

They pulled up in front of their hotel and Hanna got out of the car and went to the front desk to check in. Once they had received their key cards and got the directions to their rooms. Estelle handed her bags off to a member of the staff for them to be taken to her room.

She turned to Hanna "Last chance, you want to come out for drinks?"

Hanna glanced down at her phone, 9:00 PM.

"No, I think that I am just going to go on up. I have some work that needs to be done before our meeting. Plus, I wanna check up on my daughter." She said waving her phone in front of her boss as if to wave off any more invites.

"Ah! Mom life!" Estelle said as she reached out and wrapped her arms around Hanna "Have to say, I am kinda jealous"

She let go of Hanna and waved as she walked back out into the night. Hanna grabbed her luggage handle and headed towards the elevators. Once she had reached her room she put her bags down and pulled out her phone and sent a quick text.

 **Just got to the hotel. Still up?**

She sat there for a few minutes before her phone started to vibrate. Lifting it up to her face she saw that it was an incoming FaceTime request from Caleb. She quickly hit accept and waited for the calls to connect.

Once her screen lit up and saw Caleb laying next to Kenz in her bed. He was shirtless with wet hair and Kenz laid with her head on his chest. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Hey. We were just getting ready to go to bed. She's been waiting with my phone for an hour now." He said with a laugh "Kenz. Mommy is on the phone." He said as he got her attention from the iPad she had in her lap.

"Kenzieeeeeee" she sang out, trying to get her daughter's attention.

She watched as they phone shook as if an earthquake had hit and she was watching it from her cellphone.

"Kenz, careful" she heard Caleb say as the phone muffled like it had been dropped. Hanna laughed as she could just see the scene now in her mind.

"Mommyyyyyyy!" Kenzie called out as she picked up the phone. "Mommy! Mommy, guess what?!" she asked with a smile from ear to ear.

"What's that sweetie?" Hanna asked with excitement.

"Daddy took me to the store and I gots a new doll." She said as she tried to hold the Barbie up so her mom could see it. She held the phone so close to her face that Hanna only had the view of half her face and the blonde hair she held the doll up by.

"Bug, get daddy to hold the phone out so I can see. I can only see half of your pretty face." She called out.

"I'M ON IT!" she heard him scream towards the phone in the background before the earthquake happened again and the phone moved further out so that she could see their daughter and half of his chest.

"Hey! Daddy I'm not done with that!" she said with a pout on her face.

"Mommy couldn't see you baby. Now she can see you. Show her your doll." He said.

Kenz quickly forgot about the phone and held the doll up again by her ponytail.

"See mommy, pretty huh?" she asked.

"Yes baby she is pretty. What else did you and daddy do?" Hanna asked

She listened as Kenzie rambled on and on about how the rest of her day went. She felt the very familiar feeling in her chest. If they were still together, she would be on the other side of that bed with Caleb, putting their daughter to sleep. She wouldn't need to get a rundown of her day because she would already know.

"AND we just picked this book out for my bedtime story." She said holding up a copy of Sports Illustrated.

"No we're not..." Caleb called out as he pulled the book out of her hands. He brought his face so that she could see it on the screen "Han, I am NOT reading her SI for a bedtime story. Swear!" and then he disappeared from the frame again

He handed the little girl a hardback copy of a ballerina book.

"Caleb…?" a voice called from the background. "Caleb?" the voice was closer to the phone than before.

Hanna stopped breathing. Her heart started beating in her ears. He turned his head towards the door where the voice sounding like it was coming from.

"Yeah?"

"Sorry I didn't mean to interrupt. I didn't know you were still in here. I was just going to let you know I was getting a shower and I would be in here for bedtime story."

Suddenly she felt like a stranger, an audience for someone else's life. She just wanted to disappear. She blinked the tears away that came to her eyes and cleared her throat. He looked back towards the phone and she offered him a slight smile. He looked back towards the door.

"Okay, she's just saying goodnight to mommy and then we will be ready to read." He said

"It won't take me long. HI HANNA!" she called out.

 _See, you should really hate this bitch! Who does that?_

She thought.

 _A nice person that wants to be friends, that's who!_

She swallowed heard. This was the difficult part.

"Hi!" she yelled back to the other voice. "I will let you guys go I just wanted to let you know I had made it in and tell Kenz goodnight. I have to be getting in bed anyway; I have an early morning meeting." She said with a sigh.

"Bug, mommy is about to get in bed okay?" she asked

"Ooooookay mommy!"

"I will call you again tomorrow, is that okay?"

"Okay." she said with a yawn. "Mommy?"

"Yes baby?"

"I loves you."

Her heart stopped. She smiled into the phone, tears in her eyes.

"I love you too baby. Goodnight. Sleep tight."

"Goodnight. NO BUGS IN THE BED!"

She heard Caleb laugh in the background and then he turned the phone to his face.

"So, we will hear from you tomorrow?" he asked

"Yeah, I have an early morning meeting, so just text me when you guys get up and I will call shortly after so I don't interrupt anything."

"You're free to call any time, Han."

"Thank you." her voice barely a whisper. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

And just like that, he was gone. Her phone went black and she was alone in her hotel room again. Getting up off the bed she turned the TV on to fill the deafening silence. She mindless flipped channels trying to find something to watch. Desperately seeking something to take her mind away.

"Surely they have America's Next Top Model or Project Runway on here somewhere." she said to herself.

She flipped through the channels until she landed on Dora the Explorer. She sat there watching. The show was a favorite of Kenzie's and Hanna had heard it so much that she absolutely despised Dora and Diego for that matter. For some reason tonight, it brought her comfort.

 _This. This feels more like home._

She got up off the bed and grabbed her bathroom bag and headed for the shower. Once she had showered, pulled her hair up, she ventured back out into the bedroom to find her PJs. Throwing her suitcase onto the bed and unzipping it, she dug around until she found them. Pulling out the shirt she ran her fingers over the seams of the old gray t-shirt. Clutching the shirt, she sat down next to her bag and looked at it like it was the first time she had ever seen it.

 _You know, you do this to yourself. Out of all the clothes you own, you pick his old shirt and boxers to sleep in…_

It was just about the only thing he left back at their apartment 6 years ago when he left her for Europe. She found it shoved in the bottom of a drawer along with a hoodie and a pair of old boxers when she was cleaning one day. She never had the heart to throw it out, or give it back. Instead she slept in it most nights, she had for years. As awful as it was, the scent of him lingered on it when she found it. She wore it for weeks without ever washing it. She cried when she dropped Ketchup on it the first time and was forced to wash the smell of his soap away. It was just an old gray shirt with some band he liked that she couldn't stand on it but it had become her favorite shirt.

She sighed and pulled it over her head, grabbing the boxers that she wore as shorts she threw them on too, telling herself not to even think about it. She climbed into bed and with the sounds of Dora signing to her, she drifted off to sleep.

The next week flew by in a whirl of meetings, fabrics and models and before she knew it she was stepping off a plane back at home. They managed to close the deal they were working on and expanded Estelle's brand with two new department stores. Overall it was a successful trip. She stayed pretty busy the whole time, but she still managed to FaceTime with Kenzie pretty often. Caleb also sent her photos and text updates throughout the day so she wouldn't worry. While she waited for her luggage she took her phone out of her bag and sent a quick text to Caleb.

 **Just landed, I should be back in town by 2, I can swing by there around 4. Will that work?**

Hitting send, she pulled up her mom's text

 **Waiting on luggage. Won't be too long. You outside?**

Ashley replied back immediately

 **Yep. Just now finding a parking spot. I will see you inside.**

She hit reply

 **K**

She saw her luggage rolling onto the conveyor belt as her phone buzzed in her hand. She slid it open to his reply

 **Yeah, that's cool. We will be here.**

She replied

 **Okay. Be there soon.**

Throwing her phone back into her bag she made her way around to grab her suitcase and head towards her mom. In the crowded airport lobby her mom stuck out like a sore thumb with her bright red hair. She held a sign that said MY BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER and it made Hanna laugh

"Mom, a sign really?!" she asked looking around, slightly embarrassed,

"Hey, you may be an adult, but I am still your mother and I can still embarrass you." She said as she threw her arm around Hanna's shoulders as they made their way to her car.

At 3:55 she pulled up in the driveway of the brick two story home that Caleb owned, complete with white picket fence in the front yard. She put her car in park and cut the ignition. She flipped down her visor mirror and checked her makeup and hair. Taking a deep breath she opened the door. Stepping out she smoothed the wrinkles out of her gray silk blouse that was tucked into her black pinstripe trouser dress pants. They had another early breakfast meeting before catching their plane so she didn't have time to change out of her business attire.

The clicking of her heels on the pavement of the driveway distracted her from the beating of her heart in her ears as she made her way towards the door. Once she had reached the first step, she wanted to cry. She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

"Comingg!" she heard yelled towards the door.

 _Oh no! Not heard. Caleb please answer the door. PLEASE answer the door._

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Confused where the sound was coming from, she looked around.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP

What seemed like 5 minutes later, but what was only actually seconds later the door swung open.

"Hanna, hi! Come on it. Caleb is packinig up Kenz's things now." she said as she stepped to the side so Hanna could walk through the door.

She plastered a fake smile on her face as she replied

"Hey Spence."

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Hanna jolted awake and sat straight up in bed rubbing her eyes. She reached over and hit the alarm on phone.

 _Damn Hanna, you gotta quit with the dreams!_


	3. Chapter 3

_Damn Hanna, you gotta quit with the dreams!_

She threw her head back onto the pillow and her body followed suit. Covering herself back up she laid there looking at the ceiling, wishing she could just go back to sleep. She was going on week 2 of little to know sleep and what sleep she did get, was clouded by visions of one of her best friends, and her ex-boyfriend.

 _You have got to get a grip on yourself! It was a couple of pictures…not a proposal._

She thought to herself.

It had been two weeks since she finally decided to log onto Facebook for the first since he left 3 months ago. She had purposefully stated off of any and all social media if at all possible, to keep from having to change any relationship statuses from "In a Relationship" to "Single" and answering all of THOSE questions.

One particular day she decided that she would be brave enough to finally jump on and see what everybody had been up to, without posting anything herself. As she scrolled through her newsfeed she saw updates from Ali and Emily about school. Aria was always posting new book and author recommendations. When she clicked on the search bar at the top of her page and typed in S – Spencer Hastings was the first name that popped up. She scrolled through her newsfeed, completely bypassing any political crap that Spencer had posted and as she did she came across a photo album entitled "Europe!" with 200+ pictures. Interested, she took it upon herself to click through them, halfway through the album she clicked onto a picture that stopped her dead in her tracks.

On her screen was a selfie and Spencer with Caleb. The caption read "Ran into this guy in Madrid! :)" under it. Oh all the places and all the people in the world, how on earth did those two just happen upon each other in another freaking country?! She began clicking through the rest of the pictures like a mad woman to see more, and there were several. Mostly candid shots with him either in the background, or pictures of Spencer that she suspected he had taken.

She quickly went up to the search bar again and typed in C- nothing showed up so she continued typing out Caleb Rivers and his search. She sat back in her chair and stared at the computer screen. He had deleted his page. She slammed her laptop closed and that was the last time she had been on my traces of social media. She didn't need to get on it anymore; she spent most of her nights dreaming about it now. Mostly the same scenarios and people, just different story lines.

 _Uh no!_

She thought as she laid in bed.

She felt the pit of her stomach knot up and she knew what was coming next. She ran to the bathroom in just enough time to throw the lid up and empty the contents of last night's dinner into the bowl. Standing she turned on the shower and then turned back to the sink to brush her teeth. Looking into the mirror she stared at her reflection. She was a mess. Looking down at the lone gray shirt he left behind, she ran her fingers over the ketchup stain down the front of it.

 _Give it up Hanna. You're gonna have to wash this thing. It's pretty disgusting._

She thought as she pulled it over her head and tossed it into the laundry hamper. Deciding that even if it killed her, she was washing it tonight. Looking into the mirror she turned to her left so she could see her profile. Running her hands over the barely there mound of her stomach as she stared at the bump in the mirror.

 _All those pretty clothes aren't gonna fit for too much longer._

She turned and got into the steaming shower to start the process that was getting ready.

An hour later she was showered and ready with her hair pulled back into a messy bun. She was keeping her makeup to a minimum these days. Accenting her eyes with a tad bit of liner and mascara on her lashes was the only give away that she had even put any on. Venturing into her closet, she went in search for anything that would still fit and looked appropriate on her still. She settled on a flowy yellow maxi dress and topped it with a denim jacket. Putting on wedges that were a lot smaller than anything she was used to, she grabbed her purse and planner and dashed out the door for work.

She waltzed into the door right at 8 AM, just barely making it to her desk before she was late. She sat her stuff down on her desk and hit the button of her computer screen. Looking up she shot a look at Laurie who was staring at her from across the office. Laurie raised her eyebrows at Hanna.

Hanna and Laurie had worked together for a year now and she had quickly become one of her best friends in the city. With all her other friends scattered throughout the country, and not being able to see them all the time Hanna had grown close to Laurie. She was a tall brunette with a stacked bob and bright blue eyes.

Laurie was her saving grace after Caleb had left. The night she blew off work to go back to the apartment to him, Estelle fired her for not showing up. Laurie, being the concerned friend that she was sent Hanna a text asking her how she was holding up after being let go and told her that she would certainly be missed around the office. Hanna spilled her guts to her friend about how she left to go with him but when she had returned to the apartment he was already gone and that she had spent the last 2 days in her bed with cupcakes. Laurie came over with Chinese food and ice cream after work and stayed with Hanna for a few days. The two had been very close ever since. It was nice to have a friend in the city where you knew absolutely no one else but your co-workers and boss.

Laurie even went back to work and informed Estelle about what had happened to Hanna. Estelle called her up and requested a meeting. Hanna went expecting the details of her severance package but instead Estelle offered her job back AND she got a raise for having her heart broken. Perks of working with a woman, she understands that hardly anything fixes a broken heart.

Laurie cleared her throat to get Hanna's attention

"Good morning" she said giving her a questioning look.

With a huff Hanna answered, "Morning."

Estelle walked into the office right after.

"Good morning ladies" she said as she passed by them and into her office.

Hanna glanced up at Laurie who was making some motions that looked mildly inappropriate with her hands and mouth. Hanna threw her hands up in a questioning look as if to say, I don't know what you're talking about. So Laurie picked up her cup off of her desk and put it to her mouth and motioned towards Estelle's office.

Suddenly it clicked.

"Crap! Her coffee!" Hanna yell-whispered at her friend who gave her the thumbs up when she finally got it

"I forgot her coffee!"

She put her head in her hands about the same time; Estelle called out from her office

"Hanna! Where is my coffee?"

With a panicked look on her face she stared over at Laurie and threw her hands up for an answer. She only received a shake of her head.

"Oh Estelle, I am so sorry. I completely forgot! I will go grab it now!" she yelled and immediately jumped up from her desk and took off before her boss could say another word.

Hanna walked pretty quickly down the hall to the elevator and hit the down button. Once the doors opened she hit the down button to go to the ground level so that she could go to the building's coffee shop. She swung open the door and marched up to the counter.

"I need a Vanilla latte ASAP." she said out of breathe to the barista.

Two minutes later she was walking back out the door, with the hot cup in her hand. She hit the button for the elevator every bit of 6 times before the doors opened. Once inside she hit the button to close the door another 6 times and it started to move. The doors opened to her floor and as she made her way off the elevator she noticed the smell from the coffee and it made her stomach do flips.

 _Not again!_

She ran in the bathroom, discarding the cup on the counter to her right she found a stall and shut the door to heave into the bowl. After she was done she wiped her mouth and went to the sink to rinse with some water. She grabbed the cup and ran back out of the ladies room. Once she arrived back into their office she walked right in between her desk and Laurie's and headed straight to Estelle's office with her cup. She sat it down on her desk and turned to walk out.

"Hanna? You have a minute?" her boss asked.

She stopped dead in her tracks.

 _This is it, I am getting fired again._

She turned on her heel to face her boss.

"Estelle, about the coffee…I just..."

"It's not about the coffee Hanna. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I am fine. Just not feeling 100% today."

"Are you sure? If you need some time off…"

"No! No. I am fine really. It won't happen again." Hanna reassured her as she turned to walk out of her office and head back to her desk to work.

A few hours later Estelle walked out to go to lunch

"Ladies, I have a lunch meeting today so I will be gone for a while. Any calls, just transfer them to my voicemail." She said she passed them

"Have fun!" Laurie yelled towards her back and she was leaving.

Once the door shut Hanna laid her head in her hands and sighed. Laurie typed away at her computer, never looking up but saying

"Another long night?"

"Yes. How can you tell? Do I look that bad?"

"No, actually you look rather cute." She sighed "What was this one about?" she asked as she turned in her chair to face Hanna.

"Oh you know the usual. Meet baby daddy at the park to hand off 5 year old for business trip. Come back home to pick said 5 year old up and ring doorbell to baby daddy's house and his wife answers the door. His wife, that also happens to be my BEST FRIEND."

Laurie laughed.

"Han, you have got to tell him."

Hanna opened her eyes and looked across the room

"Yeah, I know I do, but how? How do you nicely say – Hey sorry for being a psycho stalker and tracking you down every way I know how but you remember when we broke up 3 months ago when you left for Europe…well I was knocked up and didn't find out until after you were gone? Surprise Baby daddy!"

"Well maybe not like" she said sarcastically "Why don't you try his mom again? Or his dad?"

"I've called her twice already and I tried Jamie too asked them both to get him to call me because it was important. Needless to say, I'm still waiting on that call. I'm sure they think I am being that crazy ex-girlfriend trying to keep tabs on him."

She laid her head back in her hands.

"I just don't want to tell them to tell him. I need to be the one that tells him. And I've done everything accept drive all the way around the country to find him."

"Well, maybe you can find another way. Maybe you still have some mutual friends that could get to him?"

"Yeah, but friends ask questions Laurie. Questions I don't want to answer right now."

Hanna pulled out the newspaper and began flipped through the ads

"Still looking for a place?" she asked

"Yeah. …" Hanna replied with a sigh as she flipped through the pages.

She hated to leave the apartment. It was the first place her and Caleb had out on their own. It was tiny and definitely did not have enough room for all her stuff plus a baby, but it had always felt like home to Hanna.

As she flipped through the pages she highlighted the numbers to some places that looked like they were worth looking into.

"You know, you could always take up your mom's offer you know."

"I am not going to be a 25 year old single mother living with my mom!"

"Just sayin' "

When it came time for her lunch break, Hanna went into the break room to lie down on the couch. With a million things running through her mind she knew she would never get to nap so she decided to go get some lunch. Her favorite little café was just down the street from her office and the walk would be good.

She grabbed her phone and her sunglasses and headed for the elevator. The cool air hit her face as she opened the doors to the building and head out into the sidewalk. Perellie's just a small, hole in the wall place that she and Caleb happened to find one night, but they had the best Reuben in town.

When she arrived in front of the café she opened the door and walked in.

She had been here in months and when she walked in she looked around the small sitting area for a table. Over in the very corner was a young couple sitting at a table at the front windows. When she saw them, her mind immediately went back to last Thanksgiving, when they had decided that they would do dinner a few days early for just the two of them before they headed back to Rosewood to eat at her mom's. She had burned the turkey and overcooked the dressing. He didn't say anything; he just laughed and kissed her forehead while she cried. They threw the scraps of dinner into the trash can and came to Perellie's and sat in that very same corner table. She kept apologizing for burning everything and he would just say

"Dosen't matter where we celebrate, as long as we celebrate together."

She was pulled from her memory as she heard a very familiar voice

"Mrs. Rivers! How nice to see you! It's been a while."

Her heart stopped.

 _Mrs. Rivers…_

She turned towards the counter to see Mr. Perellie standing behind the counter dressed in his usual white apron and she forced a smile.

"Mr. Perellie! It has been a while! How are you?"

"Doing well, doing well. And you?"

"Great!"

"Will you be having the usual?"

"Uh, yeah. The usual sounds great." She said with a smile

"Coming right up!" he said as he got started on her sandwich.

She sat down at a table right by the door and stared out into the street and watched the people pass by.

"Order up for you Mrs. Rivers"

She stood and went to the counter to pick up her sandwich and pay. When she reached the counter she noticed two in her bag.

She sucked in a deep breath and looked up.

"I know Mr. Rivers likes lots of pickles on his, so I threw some extras in on the side." He said with a smile as he handed her the bag "Tell him we said hello."

She forced a smile on her face as she replied

"Thank you I will!"

She took her bag and walked out the door gasping for air as she made it onto the street. She looked down at the bag knowing she wouldn't be able to eat now. She walked back down towards her office building; tossing the bag into the first trash can she saw.

She made it back to her office barely offering Laurie a smile as she passed by headed to the bathroom. Running straight into a stall and closing the door she flipped the lid down and sat down on the toilet.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in.

Then the tears came. She sobbed so hard and so loud she was sure that they could hear her in the office, but she didn't care. She cried until the tears no longer came out of her eyes. Wiping her eyes she stood and opened the stall door. When she looked up, she saw Laurie standing there with her shoulder propped up on the wall with her arms crossed.

Hanna didn't say anything she sniffled back her tears and wiped her nose on her hand.

"You have to tell him." She said

Hanna shook her head as the tears began to flow again.

"Yeah, I do." she cried.

Hanna fixed herself and fifteen minutes later when back to work. She spent the rest of the day keeping herself busy and avoiding cautious looks from across the room. When she would catch the eye, she would offer up an "Im okay" smile and nod.

Once work was over she went straight home to her apartment. She ordered Chinese delivery and went to change into her PJs. Pulling the shirt out of the hamper she remembered the stain. As her eyes began to water she held the shirt up to her nose and breathed in the scent of him one more time.

She then went into the bedroom and opened up her drawer to get another shirt. Once she had slipped it on, she grabbed on fuzzy pants and tugged those on and laid down in her bed. She grabbed her phone and slid it open to her text screen. Pulling up her contact she began to type.

 **Hey Mom. Is the offer to come home still open?**

She saw the text bubbles pop up showing that Ashley was replying. Soon her phone buzzed in her hand.

 **Yes. Of course honey. Everything okay?**

She sat there for a while, just wondering what she could say. Finally the words came to her.

 **Yeah. I just can't be alone anymore.**

After she had eaten, she picked up the clothes and went towards the washing machine. She started the water and started piling items in when she got to the shirt she stopped and held it in her hands. She threw it in the machine as the tears started to come to the surface. She shut the lid to the washing machine and sank down to the floor in front of it, sobbing. Once she had caught her breath, she knew what she had to do. Pulling her phone out of her pocket she began to dial.

RINGGGGGGGGGGGG

RINGGGGGGGGGGGG

RINGGGGGGGGGGGG

"Hey, I can't get to my phone right now, if you could please leave your name and number and I will call you back."

BEEEEP

Finding her voice she began

"Hey Spence, it's me…I don't know if you can help me or not, but I think you can. I, um I saw where you ran into Caleb in Europe and I am sure he probably told you about what happened between us…anyway..I uh, I really need to talk to him. It's really important…I , I don't know who else to call because he left his phone here so I'm sure he has gotten a new number…but if you could please, just tell him I am so sorry and that I really need to talk to him please. I love him Spence, I love him so much. I don't know what else to do. Please, just if you see him…will you tell him to call me? Thanks."

She hit the end button and laid her head back against the washing machine. She wasn't sure what was going to happen next, but she was going home.


	4. Chapter 4

Spencer sat on the arm of the couch and held her phone out with the message playing on speaking phone. Part of her felt like she had just betrayed her best friend by playing it out loud, when she was in such a vulnerable state. The other half of her thought that it would do him some good to hear just how devastated she was. She had spent the last three days debating over if she should just tell him what Hanna was saying, or if she should just let him hear it for himself. She had decided that the message was just too heartbreaking for her convey to him herself so she gave it, and played it.

"Hey Spence, it's me…I don't know if you can help me or not, but I think you can. I, um I saw where you ran into Caleb in Europe and I am sure he probably told you about what happened between us…anyway. I uh, I really need to talk to him. It's really important…I , I don't know who else to call because he left his phone here so I'm sure he has gotten a new number…but if you could please, just tell him I am so sorry and that I really need to talk to him please. I love him Spence, I love him so much. I don't know what else to do. Please, just if you see him…will you tell him to call me? Thanks."

Once the message was over she hit the end button on her phone and stared straight ahead at him as he sat in the chair across from her. When he didn't say anything and he never looked up, she finally broke the silence between them.

"Caleb, you have got to talk to her. She's devastated."

He sat there in total silence before he finally got up from his chair

"Spence, what do I say to her? What can I say? I just left. I was so mad at her for not choosing me that I left…part of me is still mad at her." He said throwing his hands up in the air.

"I know…and that makes perfect sense but you have got to at least go talk to her. If you guys don't work it out, that is fine but if that's the case you need closure, and so does she."

He stood there with his back to her looking out the window out onto the courtyard of their apartment building.

Once they had gotten back from Europe, he didn't really have any place to go. He had packed up almost all of his belongings and left New York with no intentions of going back there when he returned. When they landed back in the States he had mentioned something about going to his moms in California. Not really convinced that he did want to go all the way on the other side of the country, she had offered up the spare room in her apartment to him in D.C. He took her up on the offer and had gotten a job in town. They now split the rent and utilities. It was nice having someone around, but part of her felt like she had betrayed Hanna for not telling her he was there.

"All I am saying is at least go talk to her. Quite frankly, I am tired of seeing you mope around this apartment any time you're not at work. It's depressing."

Silence.

"Look, I know that you were really upset about Europe…but is it seriously worth ruining all those years over?"

He snapped his head around to face her.

"You KNOW why it was such a big deal." He stated

"Yes. I do." She said as she threw her hands up as in defense.

"But look you were already to that point in your lives, why let something like work ruin it all."

"It wasn't just work that one time Spence. It was all the time. Hell, we interact more as roommates than Hanna and I did the last 6 months I was in New York. She blew me off ALL the time."

"If that was the case then why..."

He knew exactly what she was going to say and cut her off.

"Because I thought it would fix things between us."

He put his head in his hands and rubbed his eyes.

 _It is way too early to get into this shit._ He thought

"Well keep telling yourself that, but you and I both know that's not the only reason." She said

Standing up, she grabbed her purse and her coffee cup and walked towards the door for her. Once she reached it so stopped and turned around in his direction

"Just call her. It will do you both some good to talk it out." She said

Finally he gave in and nodded his head

"You need her number?" she asked through a smile.

Spencer Hastings always loves to win an argument. Hell, Spencer Hastings loves to win ANYHING.

With a sigh he replied "Nope. It's still the same right?"

"Yep."

"Then no, I got it." He said as he sat back down in the chair and threw his head back.

"Good." She said as she opened the door, turning her head back around in his direction "Oh and Caleb?"

He lifted his head to look at her

"Don't forget it's your night to get dinner. I will be home at 6, it better be hot!" she called out with a laugh as she closed the door.

He threw his head back again "Dammit."

 _Pizza it is!_

Getting up he went to the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee before heading to his desk in his room. Once he got back to the States and decided that he would going to stay here in D.C. until he figured out what he was going to do with his life, he was able to find a job similar to his job in New York. Now he was responsible for finding defects in firewalls and fixing them to keep hackers out. Best thing about this job was that it allowed him to work from home. Most days he went into the office though, just to keep himself out of the apartment. Today he decided would be a day he was going to take advantage of working from home because there was way too much on his mind to talk to anyone.

Hitting the button on his laptop, his screen lit up greeting him with the picture of the New York skyline as his background. He missed it. As much as he appreciated Spencer's offer to let him crash here in D.C., it didn't feel like home. It didn't bring him any comfort. It just felt like a bandaid. He had lived a lot of places and no place felt like home until Rosewood. Rosewood felt like home. New York had felt like home.

 _Get your head together. You have work to do._

He thought with a shake of his head. He opened up his work and began doing one of the only things that took his mind off of life.

Two hours later he had worked himself up an appetite so he headed to the kitchen. Searching over the cabinets he decided that he would make himself a sandwich. Once he had everything on his plate, he thought of Perellie's.

 _Man I could use a cold cut right now…_

Throwing some extra pickles on his plate he headed back to work. Sitting down at his desk he took a bite of his sandwich. With a laugh he remembered how he and Hanna would meet at Perellie's sometimes during their lunch breaks. She would always make it there before him and had his sandwich ordered and waiting for him when he arrived. They spent 5 minutes eating, and the rest of the time together talking about their day. Her schedule was always so unpredictable so sometimes that would be the only time he would get to see her relaxed. He began to wonder if she had been since he had left.

Getting up from his desk he walked over to his dresser and opened his sock drawer. He dug around until he pulled the leather object he was looking for from the drawer, shutting it back and walking over to the desk again. He flipped the box over and over in his hands. He ran his finger over the top of the box where it said Jared. Opening it up he looked at the pear shape solitaires tucked inside. It wasn't anything extravagant, but it was what he could afford. It had taken him months to save up the money for it. When he went into the store to pick it out, he knew exactly what he was looking for. She had always loved pear shaped diamonds. She stated that they were "elegant- just like Audrey Hepburn."

He had everything all planned out. Once they landed in Prague he was going to take her to Petrin Hill and drop down on one knee at sunset and ask her to marry him. Then they would spend the rest of their trip celebrating their engagement before coming back to the city. He even knew that he would tell her that his whole life he had searched for love, from searching to his parents to his foster parents that was all he ever wanted was to feel love and that he had found that when he found her. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, to have a family. To be a dad to a little girl that looked just like her….or a boy, he didn't care. He just wanted to have a family. With her.

Thinking back on their last conversation he thought about how he told her if she left he wouldn't be there when she got back. For a brief second he thought by the look on her face that she would stay. After she walked out, he sat on their bed holding the box in his hand. He thought about leaving it with his cellphone on the table as he left, just to show her how important it was…but he knew that would break her heart. He threw it in his suitcase and with one last look around their apartment he left.

Occasionally he would pull the ring out of his pocket when he saw a place where he could've proposed to her or if he saw a beautiful sunset. One night he got drunk on Sangria and pulled it out to show Spencer. She cried as he told her about the breakup and how he had planned everything out. After that night, if he would pull the ring out and she would just walk away and leave him to this thoughts. She was a good friend. She would listen when he wanted to talk but never pushed.

Closing the box he tossed it onto the desk and put his head in his hands.

 _You have work to do._

With that he got back to the task at hand. Totally consuming himself in his work he hadn't even noticed the time until he heard the front door open.

"Caleb?" he heard Spencer call out and he heard her throw her keys on the counter.

He looked at his phone for the time, 4:00 PM.

 _Crap! Pizza!_

He turned around to find her walking into his bedroom. He spun around in his chair just as she made it in the door.

"I totally forgot about dinner! I was typed up with work. I will call and order it now." He said

She walked in and sat down on the foot of his bed right in front of him and crossed her arms.

"Work huh?" she said motioning over to the desk.

Turning around, he spotted the box.

"You still torturing yourself with that ring huh?" she asked.

"Yeah." He said with a sigh as he picked up the box and opened it looking side.

She reached her hand out for the box and he handed it over. Pulling the ring out of the box, she examined it.

"She will love this you know."

"Yeah, she would've."

"There is still time." She said as she put the ring back in the box and handed back to him.

"I don't know Spence. It's so much more complicated now." He said as he opened the box looking inside one more time.

"Well, you won't figure that out unless you CALL HER!" she said standing up to walk out. "Don't worry about dinner, I will get the pizza. You just figure out how to pick up that phone and call her."

"I will get the pizza. Part of the agreement of living here was not to drink the first cup of coffee, and split dinners." He said as he put the ring box back on the desk and grabbed his cellphone.

"Pepperoni or sausage?" he asked

"Unless you are calling to order a pizza to pick up in New York to take to Hanna, don't bother. I got it." She said as she walked out and closed the door behind her before he could protest.

Sighing he sat back in his chair

 _What am I going to do about this?_

A thought came to his mind as he turned around to face his computer. Pulling up his email he began to type.

Two days passed before there was any more mention of Hanna or New York.

Caleb had decided that he was going to finish out his week at work and fly out on Friday morning. He had emailed his boss and told him that he would work from New York if that was okay, that he had some unfinished business that had come up and he would be away for a couple of days. His boss told them that would be fine, just to make sure he had emailed in all of his program reports.

He went and bought his plane ticket and booked a hotel room, just so that it didn't seem like he was expecting to stay with her. He had decided that what they needed to talk about was a little more complicated than something they could talk about on the phone so he hadn't bothered to call. He was just going to show up and hope for the best.

He stood in his room on Thursday packing, throwing some clothes and toiletries in the bag. Before zipping it up he reached over and grabbed the ring out of his drawer. Opening it one last time he threw it in his carry on with his laptop and zipped it up. Just as he was finishing up he heard the front door open and shut.

"Caleb?" she called out.

Grabbing his bags he walked out into the living room discarding next to the the front door, and throwing his ticket and hotel confirmation on the table next to it.

"What's this?" she asked noting the bags in his hand.

"Well I took your advice and made some calls. I'm gonna head out in the morning to New York. I've got to tell her Spence. She has to know that I still love her."

A look of surprise came over her face as she reached out to hug him.

"That's great Caleb!"

"Yeah, I leave out first thing in the morning so I am about to go ahead and grab dinner. I have to hit the bed pretty early. Think you can drive me to the airport in the morning?"

"Absolutely. Yeah. Just let me know what time and I will take you."

"Thanks. Hey, Chinese good with you?" he said pointing towards the door,

"Yeah, sounds great!"

"Great! Be back shortly." He said as he dashed out the door.

Feeling gleeful for her friend she immediately picked up the phone to call Hanna.

RINGGGGG

RINGGGGG

"Hello?" she heard from the other end.

"Hey Han!" she said with a smile

"Hey Spence! I was beginning to think I would never hear from you. Did you get my message?"

"Yeah, that's what I was calling about…"

The front door opened.

"Hey Spence, have you seen my wallet? I thought I had it with me but I can't find it. Can't get food on my good looks. "he said as he made his way back inside.

As she turned her head to face him she heard

"Spencer? Is that Caleb?"

Watching him walk down the hall with wide eyes

"SPENCER!" the voice screamed in her ear as she watched him walk back down the hallway towards her

Holding up his wallet Caleb said "I found it, I left it in the bedroom."

Turning her head back to the wall she heard

"IN THE BEDROOM! SPENCER DOES HE LIVE WITH YOU?"

"This is so totally not what it…" she said before she heard

CLICK.

"Sounds like" she finished as she looked that the phone.

Realizing she has made a horrible mistake she turned back to face him. He must've noticed the look of panic on her face

"What's wrong?" he asked

Looking back down at her phone she said

"Hey Caleb, when you said that you had made some calls…where any of those to Hanna by chance?"

"No. I just figured I would show up. Why?"

Looking at him she stated

"Well, I think I may have complicated your trip." as she held up the phone.

"What? Why?" he asked in panic

"Well when you said you had made some calls I thought one was to her. So I was going to tell her to call me and let me know how things go...and she heard you talking about your wallet and now I think she thinks we are living TOGETHER." she motioned with her hands as if to stress the point

"WHAT?" he said as he made his way across the room "Call her back. Tell her that it's not like that." he demanded.

Quickly dialing Hanna's she hit send and put the phone to her ear

RINGGGG

"Hey its Hanna, leave me a message."

Hanging up she looked at Caleb "Voicemail."

Throwing his hands up to his face he looked at her "I've got to go. I have to get there."

He said as he grabbed his bags and headed towards the door.

"Here" she said pulling the keys out of her purse "Take my keys."

She held them up. He took them and said thanks and out the door he went.

Jumping in the car he turned the ignition and put the car in drive.

 _God, Hanna please…please just listen.._

He thought as the headlights hit the road bound for New York


	5. Chapter 5

Hanna hung up the phone and immediately cut it off. She didn't want to talk to anyone. Not Spencer, Not Caleb not anyone. As tears filled her eyes she sank down onto her bed. Cradling his pillow she began to sob.

 _Honestly, how could she do this to me? How could he? If he had wanted to hurt me, there were other ways to do it..._

Had all of her dreams been trying to tell her something? Had this been a sign all along that she needed to move on and just let him be happy? Maybe that was with Spencer, maybe it wasn't. Maybe her time had come and gone with him.

 _What if I had just stayed, maybe things would be totally different now…_

Rolling over she stared at the picture she still kept on her nightstand. It was taken when they were 17, she had her arms wrapped around his neck and they were smiling. They were so happy then.

 _Where had it all gone wrong? When did he decide that he was unhappy? What had I been doing when he decided this? Was I completely oblivious? Had I been occupied with work?_

With the sadness and sleepiness taking over, she tried to hold her eyelids open but failed. She cried herself to sleep clutching his pillow.

Caleb had been driving for hours. He kept thinking about what he would say when he got to her. How would he explain everything? How could he make it right?

 _She couldn't really think that I could move on so quickly. Especially with her best friend, right?_

As he passed the state line he felt the rush of panic wash over him. What if she said no? What if she refused to listen to him? He couldn't blame her for being mad. Mad about him leaving, or not calling. He had stayed away just for the simple purpose because he didn't know how he could ever apologize.

As he pulled into the parking lot of their old apartment complex he put the car in park and cut the engine. He it hadn't even occurred to him that she might not be at the apartment anymore. Maybe she had gotten her own place somewhere? What would he do if he had?

 _You will just call her and go from there._

He sat there gripping the steering wheel wondering if he should do anything at this hour or if he should just drive on over to his hotel and book another night onto his existing reservation. Shaking his head, he grabbed the keys and opened the door. He was possibly close enough to her that he could finally see her face again, he wasn't waiting.

Walking up to the front gate where the call buttons where, scanning down the list he found the button labeled Marin. He ran his finger over the ink of the label where Rivers had once been. He closed his eyes and hit the button, praying she would answer.

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The sound awoke Hanna from her dream. Looking around, she realized that it was her doorbell. Looking over at the clock that read 12:30 AM she wondered who would be buzzing at her door. Immediately panic washed over her. Getting up she stumbled over to the door where the answer button was.

"Who is it?" she called as she held the button down

Just the sound of her voice coming from the speaker outside made his heart stop. She had been asleep, he could tell by the sound of her voice. He could see her now; hair pulled up into a messy bun on top of her head, cheeks pink some sleeping on her arms. She probably stood at the door with her eyes barely open. He knew she always had to have a cup of coffee in the morning before she was fully aware and awake.

"Who is it?"she called out again.

Lifting his hand he hovered over the button to call back to her. Finally he pushed the button and sucked in a deep breathe.

"Hey Han." was all he could get out.

She froze. He sound of his voice made her scalp prickle. She didn't want to talk to him; she couldn't to talk to him.

"Can I come up?"

She put her back to the wall next to the button. She had spent the last 3 months thinking about this very moment and right now she could bring herself to move an inch.

He pressed the button again

"Hanna, please. I just need to talk to you."

She couldn't move. In her mind she willed herself to answer him, to let him come up. But she was completely paralyzed. The only thing she could do was cry.

Outside Caleb shook his head. His heart began to race, he wasn't getting up but he knew she was listening. There was no turning back now. He hit the button again.

"Han listen…the thing with Spencer; it's not what you think. I would never do that to you okay? I care about you too much."

Inside Hanna threw her head back against the wall; there was no holding the tears back now.

"I ran into her in Madrid and we hung out in Europe, that's it. When we came back I had nowhere else to go so she let me crash in her spare room, that's all. I promise you."

Silence.

He hit the button again.

"I am so sorry about the way things ended. I was just so mad at you. All I wanted was for us to go to Europe. To have some time to ourselves. You were so consumed with work all the time and I felt like you didn't even care anymore. I just wanted to be with you and when you walked out I was angry. God Han, I was so angry."

Inside Hanna sank to the floor in sobs, cradling growing bump on her stomach.

"I thought about you every single second of that trip and when we came back, I wanted to come back here and make things right I really did, but the way I left things I didn't know what I could say to make it right…I still don't but I want to try. Hanna, I love you so much. I always have…from the very first time I saw you, you were all I had ever wanted. And I may have screwed that up and from the looks of it I did, but I am standing here in the middle of the street at 1 AM begging you, please. Let me try to make this right Please Han. Please…"

He let go of the button and waited still nothing but silence.

He let out a sigh and put his hand over his mouth.

 _This is it..This is the end_

With that thought the tears welled up in his eyes. He stood there for a few more minutes before turning to head back to the car. The tears came.

"I came back!"

He stopped in his tracks. Turning around he saw her standing on the front stoop of the building. She was in her pajamas, with her hair pulled up just the way he knew she would. She was crying.

 _God, she's beautiful._

He thought. He couldn't move he just stood there looking at her like it was the very first time he had saw her. She began to walk down the stairs towards him.

"In the cab I decided that nothing in this world that was worth losing the one thing, the ONE thing that I was sure about. The one person I loved, more than anything else. I CAME BACK… for you. I ran 5 blocked in the pouring rain."

She wrapped her arms around herself as if to shelter herself from the outside world while she was so vulnerable. She kept moving towards him as he stood still, unable to move.

"You know I used to think that A was the worst thing that could ever happen to me…then the dollhouse happened. I was put into a house for weeks and tortured. Once I got out, I thought that had to be the worst thing that could ever happen to me and for a long time it was. When I came back and you were gone…"

She stopped to wipe the tears that streamed down her cheeks.

"That apartment up there, that apartment where we made so many happy memories and so much love. That apartment that is so small it couldn't even house my shoe collection was suddenly so big and so empty. It was cold and lonesome. That's when I realized that the worst thing that could ever happen to me was you leaving. That apartment became my own personal dollhouse where I tortured myself every single day for months for ever leaving, For losing the one person…"

They stood 15 feet apart just staring at each other both crying. He finally found the strength to move as he took once step closer to her.

"Nothing has happened with Spencer?"

"No nothing. Ever. We're friends. That's it."

She stayed silent, still staring into his eyes.

"I love you so much and I am so sorry for ever leaving you. I should've stayed and worked it out. I should have but I was so mad. I will do whatever I have to in order to make this right. I want to be with you. I've wanted to be with you every day since the day I walked out of that door. So bad it hurts."

He closed the distance in between them. Looking way she wiped the tears away on her sleeve. Once he got close enough, he reached out and touched her cheek, running his thumb under her eyes to wipe away the tears that lingered. As soon as their skin touched she closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. She let out a sigh as she kept her eyes closed. He kept his on her, he couldn't look away. She reached up and placed her hand on top of his and rubbed her thumb over his knuckles.

"Han, I am so sorry…I love you so much, please just…"

"I love you too…and I am so sorry for not staying."

With his hand still on her face he bent down and gently kissed her lips, deepening the kiss she wrapped her arms around his neck pulled him closer to her. He pulled back resting his forehead on hers as she whispered

"I'm pregnant."


	6. Chapter 6

"I'm pregnant."

Shocked as the words rolled off of her lips, Hanna's flew open in panic. She had no intention of saying them in that moment, they just came out. She felt him tense throughout his whole body. They stood there for what seemed like hours in complete silence and shock, both of them. Hanna had known for a while now but in that moment it was as if she was just finding out herself.

 _A+ timing on that one Marin. You really know how to ruin a moment._

Finally pulling back from her, Caleb looked down as she stared straight forward, never meeting his glance.

"What?"

She slammed her eyes shut as she saw more tears form in the corner of her eyes.

 _Did she just say that she was…pregnant?_

"I'm pregnant." She said through tears with a shrug of her shoulders her face stretching into a soft smile. She never looked up though, never met his eyes.

He swallowed hard

"Are you...sure..?" he croaked out

She slung her head up to finally face him

"That it's yours? Yeah, I'm sure."

"That's not what I meant." he said as he stared at her

"Look, I get it. You haven't been with me in months and as far as you know when you left that wasn't the case. I can understand why you would think that it could be…"

He cut her off "Are you sure that you are pregnant?"

"Yeah. I am two gallons of water, fifteen home tests, a couple doctors' visits and one meltdown sure."

He stood there in silence just looking at her. He couldn't find the words to say. It was not like this wasn't something that he wanted, eventually. He just couldn't wrap his head around it at this moment.

"Look, it's REALLY cold out here, do you want to come up and we can talk about it?" she asked as she wrapped her arms around herself again

Looking her up and down he finally realized that she had come out half dressed. She was wearing an old pair of boxers and a gray t-shirt that he recognized as his own, a hoodie and house shoes. He scanned her looking for any signs that would have shown to him, if he had been paying attention that she was pregnant. The third pass over her body he saw the bottom of the t-shirt and how it hugged tighter on her stomach there.

"Caleb?"

Shaking him from his thoughts he looked back at her face.

"Yeah, um…let's get you back inside." he said as he wrapped his arms around her and they made their way back to the building.

They didn't say a word as they climbed the stairs. Complete silence. Once they reached the floor of the apartment they walked out. She pulled the keys out of the pocket of the hoodie and walked inside holding the door open for him.

The apartment was almost completely bare, with boxes full and empty lining the walls. The only furniture that remained was the bed and dresser. She had boxes surrounding the room labeled clothes and dishes. As he looked around, the place was hardly anything like he remembered it.

She walked passed him towards the bed as he took in his surroundings.

"Sorry about the mess" she said when she noticed his reaction.

"You're leaving the apartment?" he asked almost in shock.

"Uh yeah. I am moving back to moms for a little while." she said as she sat down on the bed crossing her legs Indian style "At least until..." she rubbed her belly.

"How long?" he said as he watched her

"Have I known? Almost two months. I uh, I was going through my planner writing down of the meetings I had for Estelle and noticed that I had not written my periods down in a long time. Not thinking anything about it until Laurie and I started talking at work. That's when I realized how long it had actually been. After work we went to the store and bought every EPT on the shelf. We quit reading them after the 15th one was pink." She said never meeting his glance

"How far along are you?"

He walked slowly towards the bed where she sat and slowly sank down onto the bed beside her with his feet positioned on the floor.

"About 3 and a half almost 4 months."

"How could this happen. How did this happen?" he fixed his stare on the carpet near the closet

"Well, Caleb…when a man and a woman love each other…" she said with a laugh

He snapped his head up to look at her.

 _Not the time for jokes Hanna._

"I'm sorry" she said "Look, I didn't know before Europe, I promise. I found out after you were already gone."

"You should've called me…"

She got up from her spot on the bed and walked over to the box where her laptop sat. Moving her laptop she opened the box and pulled out some papers and his cellphone. She closed the box and walked back over to the bed with the paperwork. Sitting back down she handed him everything.

"You left your phone here, remember?"

 _Dammit!_

He thought as he sat the phone down in his lap and began flipping through the papers. There was the information from her doctor there, along with a black and white sonogram. In the middle of all the fuzziness in the picture was a tiny white spot with an arrow pointing to it with the word "BABY!" beside it.

"After I found out, I emailed you and it was returned back to me…so I emailed your work email and that came back to me too."

In his hands he held the emails she had typed out. Reading over them, he saw that she did in fact try to tell him.

"So I called your mom and I asked her if she could to please tell you to call me. When I never heard anything back, I texted her just to make sure. She said that she would tell you when she heard from you, I waited and when I never heard anything back from you or her, I texted Jamie asking him the same thing."

"They both knew?"

"No. I just asked them to tell you to call me. I wanted to be the one to tell you. I thought you should hear it from me. "

Suddenly it clicked; his mother HAD told him to call her. She didn't say that it was important so he didn't think anything else about it. He just figured that was her way of pushing him to talk to her before he was ready.

"Yeah. She did. She uh, she told me to call. She didn't say it was important." He brought his hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose "I wasn't ready to talk about it. I thought that was what she was trying to get me to do. Had I known I would've come here. I would've called"

He glanced over at her and she clutched a pillow to her chest.

"I'm sorry. I should've called."

"Caleb, you had no way of knowing. I actually thought that you might think I was just being a crazy ex-girlfriend using all my contacts to track you down." She said as she forced a laugh

They sat in silence for several minutes before he finally cleared his throat and said

"What is it? Do you know yet?"

"No, not yet. I find out in a couple weeks…I've been having these crazy dreams, so I think it may be a little girl."

"Crazy dreams? That's a sign of a girl?" he asked slightly confused.

"I don't know…but in my dreams it's a girl. Always Kenzie."

He laughed as he heard the name.

Thinking about on the time they had laid out in the park on the merry go round looking at the stars right after graduation. As they lay there, they talked about having kids and how they would be better parents to their kids than their parents had been to them. He had told her that he promised he would be a better father to their kids than what he had growing up, and better than Tom had been to her. As they laid there they talked about names. They had decided that they wanted unique names for their kids, so they wouldn't grow up to be a Heather, or Joseph. Hanna had said she liked the name McKenzie but that was too common so he said

"Well if you want to name our daughter McKenzie that is what we will do. We could always just call her Kenzie."

Smiling, he brought himself back into real time he said

"Kenzie? Like from the night at the park?" he said with a laugh

She looked up from her hands knotted in her lap with a look of shock on her face.

"You remember that?"

"Of course. I couldn't forget it even if I tried. We were leaving the next day headed here and we were talking about the life we would build."

She began to cry and laugh at the same time

"Looking back on it, we were way too young to even think about having that conversation."

He reached out and wrapped her in his arms and kissed her forehand.

"Yeah, we were. We were just babies." he said

"Now we're having babies." she said as she snuggled into his neck.

They spent hour lying in bed, just talking. About Europe, about leaving New York, about Hanna quitting on Estelle so she could back home. Finally after Hanna dozed off he noticed that it was almost 3 AM. Pulling his arm out from underneath her head, she woke.

"Hey, where you going?" she said in her sleepy voice.

Kissing her cheek he said "I'm gonna go ahead and head back to the hotel."

"No, you should stay." she as she rolled over to face him

With a laugh he replied

"As appealing as that sounds, I should really go on over there. I didn't come here with the intention of sleeping here."

Reached up she put her arms around his neck and brought him down for a kiss.

"You can stay, you know. This was once your apartment too." She said trying to persuade him.

"I know. I am trying to do the right thing here Han and be a gentleman."

"Fine." she protested.

Reached down he put his hand on her belly. Kissing her on her temple and climbed out of the bed

"I will be back first thing in the morning." he said as he made his way back to the door.

"Wait." She called out as she reached over to the nightstand and pulled the drawer out. Pulling out a set of keys she handed them out to him. "Here are your keys…just let yourself back in whenever you come back." She said with a smile.

Taking the keys from her he kissed her forehead.

"Goodnight." He said as he walked back towards the door.

"Goodnight." She replied.

He opened the door and shut it back quietly as she stood in the hallway and locked the handle. He made his way back down the hallway and to the stairs. Once he went down two flights he was back at the front door of the complex. He opened it and walked out onto the street. Replaying the images of what had happened early he smiled as he made his way back to the car.

Climbing in he put the key in the ignition and car roared to life. He pulled out his cellphone and saw two messages, both from Spencer

 **Hey. Did you make it there safely?**

Followed by

 **I guess by the lack of reply that means you are hopefully talking it out. Let me know where I need to ship the rest of your stuff.** **J**

He put the car in park and turned out into the road. Even at night, the streets of New York were always a mad house. As he sat in traffic he realized that he should've stayed with her. He really thought that leaving would be the right thing, but just the thought of him walking back out the door again and leaving her there weighted on his mind.

 _You're gonna be a dad. Your whole world is back there in that apartment._

With that thought he swung the car around and headed back in the direction he came from. Pulling back up he grabbed his bags out of the backseat and made his way towards the building. Climbing the stairs two at a time he made it up in no time. Standing outside the door he turned the key and quietly crossing the threshold he closed the door behind him. As he turned back around he saw her raise her head in bed. He dropped his bags by the door and made his way back and laid down, wrapping his arms around her.

"I'm glad you came back."

Placing his hand on her belly he said

"It feels good to be home."


	7. Chapter 7

When Hanna awoke, she was alone. Sitting up in the bed she looked around. There were no signs of him anywhere. The other side of the bed was made up and there were no bags at the door.

 _Damn it. Another dream…Why? Why couldn't it be real? God…_

Rolling over and looking at the clock, it read 7:45 AM. She grabbed her cellphone and turned it on. As she let her phone boot up and got up to head to the bathroom.

She heard her phone beep from the bedroom. It had beeped 3 times, 4 times, 5 times.

"Geez, did I miss something?" she humbled to herself

Stumbling back into the bedroom she noticed she had 2 missed calls, 3 text messages and 1 voicemail all from Spencer. Calling her voicemail she put the phone up to her ear

"Hey Han, Its Spencer. Look I really wanted to explain everything a little better. It wasn't what it sounded like I promise. I would never do that do you. Sisters before misters man com'on! No but seriously I just really wanted to just talk to you and explain. Please don't be mad. I should've told you that he was staying here months ago and I am sorry. But it's not like that. We split rent for heaven's sake! Please just tell me when you get this message. I just really want to talk to you. I love you…Hanna Banana."

 _Well at least at least the worst part wasn't a dream…_

She thought as she hung up the phone.

Deciding she was going to have a shower before ever even starting that line of drama she went into the bathroom to start the water. Getting undressed she turned sideways and she ran her hands over her bump. She noticed how much it had grown in the last week.

 _Dude, you have got to quit eating so much. Hefty Hanna.._

She thought as she examined her belly in the mirror.

 _But com'on who can turn down extra fries when you can use the excuse "I'm knocked up."_

Hoping in the shower she took her time. Washing her hair twice and collecting her thoughts.

 _Maybe I should just call Spencer back and demand her let me talk to him. Yeah, right like anyone could demand Spencer Hastings to do anything._

Getting out of the shower she sprayed her hair with conditioner and began braiding it back. She put on some yoga capris and a t-shirt. She had decided to take a walk down to the bakery. A walk would do her some good, she could clear her head.

Picking up her phone she figured that she better call Spencer back now because once she left, nothing was coming in between her and her banana nut muffin. Dialing her number she hit send and put the phone to her ear.

RRRIIINNNGGG

Spencer picked up immediately

"Oh my god Hanna. Listen I am so sorry. I should've called you and told her that Caleb was staying here. But it's not like that, I swear. He literally lives at the other end of the apartment. We don't share a bed, we don't share a bathroom. We share a kitchen and a living room, but technically we don't even share a kitchen because it's usually take out on nights that he's supposed to cook…"

"Good morning Spencer" she said loudly, cutting her friend off

"Good morning." she said

"So. Tell me about Caleb."

"Okay so I actually ran into him in Madrid. He was really upset Han. We traveled around for a little while just keeping each other company, again SEPARATE rooms. Once we landed back in the states, he didn't have anywhere to go except California. I just told him that if he wanted to stay on this side of the country I had an extra room with a bed. A couple days later he called me up and asked if the offer was still open. He came here and there are literally 10 walls between us. We don't date, we don't even eat dinner together most nights. Usually he stays in his room. Look. I would never do that to you. I would never go there."

"Feel better?" Hanna asked through a smile

"A little. I should've told you. I knew you two weren't talking so I didn't want to get in the middle. I didn't want you mad at me."

"I'm not mad."

"You're not?"

"No. You've made it extremely clear that nothing is going on. I believe you."

"Oh thank god. Because I was about 2 seconds from coming up there."

They shared a laugh

"I love you Han. I would never do that to you.."

"I love you too Spence…but as much as I do love you, there is a banana nut muffin down the block calling my name. So I will call you later. We should catch up."

"Yeah we should. Now go get your muffin."

They said their goodbyes and she hung up the phone.

Grabbing her ear buds she put them in her ears and cut on some music for the walk. As she turned to walk out of the apartment she noticed how tight her shirt had become. Grabbing the hoodie off the boxes by the bed she threw it on and zipped it up.

 _Oh! Brush your teeth!_

She turned around and walked into the bathroom. Putting the toothpaste on her brush she began to brush. Just as her favorite song came on and she began to dance around in the bathroom. After she was done, still dancing she turned to walk into the bedroom.

She stopped.

Caleb was sitting on the foot of the bed, just staring at her with a smirk. She pulled the earbuds out of her ears and looked around.

With a laugh he said "Still got those moves Emily taught you I see."

"What? It's Selen Gomez. You always have to dance to Selena." she said with a smile

"I thought.." she started "Did you stay here last night?"

"Yeah?" he replied sounding slightly confused

 _OH THANK GOD! It wasn't a dream…_

"Sorry, I uh…I woke up this morning and you weren't here so I thought maybe I had dreamed it all up."

"No. I woke up early so I went to the hotel and canceled my reservations and ran some errands while you slept…or at least while I thought you slept."

"Oh. No. Pregnancy bladder doesn't allow you to sleep in much."

He smiled

"So, while I was out I decided to get stop and grab some breakfast. I didn't really know what pregnant women could and couldn't eat or if your preferences have changed so I Googled.."

He got up from bed and walked over to the dresser where there were 5 bags all lined up in a row

"So according to Google, you are supposed to eat healthy...naturally, so I stopped by the supermarket and got you fruit and oatmeal" he said as he began to pull it out of the bag and show her "but I know you always love that little bakery down the street so I stopped and got you a banana nut muffin, just in case." He said with a smile as he pulled it out and showed it to her.

Her eyes lit up and she clapped with excitement and stuck her hand out. Handing over the muffin he continued

"Now I grabbed some milk for you if you choose the muffin" he said as he pulled out a small chug "But I know how much you love caffeine so I ran by Starbucks to get you a coffee, but I read that it wasn't good so I thought I would get you a decaf cup of coffee, and decided there was no way you would drink that, so you got milk and milk."

With her mouth full she said "Milks good" as she stuck her hand out for the chug. Handing her the bottle he sat back down beside her on the bed.

"Man this is so good. Thank you. I could eat 5 of these things."

"Well, I thought about that." He said as he got back up and went to the bags. He pulled out one more muffins and handed one over to her "I got you two. And you're welcome."

He kissed her temple as she took the other muffin from him and sat it in her lap. Watching her eat he couldn't help but smile. Looking down he noticed her outfit

"Did you have something you were heading out to do?"

"Actually." she said with a full mouth. She held a finger up as she swallowed her food before continuing "I was just going to walk down to the bakery for this" she said as she held up the second one "but you saved me me a trip and we thank you."

He couldn't help but laugh at her

 _God, she's so beautiful..._

"What?"she asked, again with a full mouth "Do I have crumbs on my face or something?"

"No. Its just...you said we" he said with a smile

She returned his smile before taking another drink of her milk. They sat in silence, him studying her for a few minutes before he finally said

"What's it been like? I mean so far.."

"Pregnancy?"

"Yeah."

"Um, actually given the circumstances it's okay so far actually physically. Morning sickness is new, I haven;t been real sick until recently."

"And the dreams?"

"Dreams, well I think I may have brought those on myself." she said suddenly feeling silly. She she got up from the bed and walked across the room to the dresser. Standing with her back to it and facing him in front of her. She put her hands on either side of her.

"When I saw those pictures online of you and Spencer in Europe..it...it really tore my heart right back in half. So I started having these dreams. They always involved you and I and the baby but you were always with her. And they really freakin sucked."

He sat with his elbows rested on his knees as he rubbed his hands together as if in thought. He looked back towards her.

"I'm sorry, I just want to know about everything...everything I have missed."

Smiling she stared at him with tears in her eyes. It was such a sweet gesture but that's the kind of man he was.

"Want to go for a walk at the park? Like we used to? We can talk about it? I could really burn off some of those calories."

He nodded as he stood and walked over to her. Placing her hands on his chest he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't here. I feel like I have missed so much already."

"Hey, its not all your fault."

As they walked out of the apartment he reached for her hand.

They walked in comfortable silence down the park and sat down one of the set of benches.

"I have something for you." she said as she pulled out her phone and searched through her pictures. Coming to the small 30 second video she handed him her phone."It's not much but its what I could get at the doctors office. Its the baby's heartbeat. You can kinda hear it...you hear me squeal too but just ignore that." she said with a laugh.

Holding the phone in his hand his finger hovered over the play button. He looked back at her and she offered him up a sweet smile.

 _God, she's beautiful.._

He leaned over and softly kissed her. Turniing back to the phone he took a deep breath and pressed play, putting the speaker up to his ear

"WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP...

OH MY GOD! THAT'S IT?

Yes ma'am, that's your baby's heart beat

WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP" followed by what sounded like her sobs came out of the speakers.

 _Dude, you're gonna be a dad..._

He thought as a smile crept over his face.

"My next appointment is in a couple weeks. If you want to go, we can hear it again. So you're not stuck with a crappy video."

Looking over at her he realized that even though she had tried to get in touch with him to tell him and never heard back, she had recorded it for him anyway.

"You did this for me?"

"Yeah, I just...I just thought that when you finally found out that you would be upset if you missed it. Then you said all those things in the apartment so I just wanted to let you know that even if you weren't there that I wanted you to be a part of it all."

Wrapping his arm over her should he pulled her into him. She rested her head on his shoulder.

"Thank you." he whispered

"Where do we go from here?" she asked

"When do you leave New York?"

"Not for a couple of weeks."

"Then we go to back Rosewood."


	8. Chapter 8

The passing weeks turned into months and before she knew it, it was baby shower day!

Standing in front of their bedroom mirror Hanna looked at her reflection, turning sideways she rubbed her bump and groaned

"God I am huge."

She said to herself as she smoothed the front of her light purple dress.

 _I look like a giant grape…_

She couldn't stop staring at herself in the mirror. She wore an off the shoulder empire waist dress in a lilac color with a rhinestone belt that sat right above and accented her massive bump. Her hair was pulled back into a low messy bun.

"You look beautiful" Caleb said as he walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her resting on the front of her bump. He kissed her neck and rested his chin on her shoulder.

"You kinda have to say that, but let's be honest…I look like the Koolaid Man…in GRAPE."

"Hey, I like Koolaid!" he said with a laugh "Seriously you are just as if not more beautiful than the day I met you."

"Promise?"

"I'll pinky promise on that one." He said sticking his pinky out to her.

Wrapping her pinky around his she couldn't help but laugh.

"What time does the shower start?"

"2. Why what time is it?" she turned her head around in panic looking at him

"Uh, 1:40."

"Crap!"

"Relax, I went downstairs and it looks like they are wrapping everything up."

She opened their bedroom door and walked out into the hallway. She could hear her mom's voice downstairs telling the other girls about all the fun games they were going to play.

 _She sure knows how to throw a party_

She made her way down the stairs peeking over the banister as she made her way down. When she reached the bottom of the stairs she squealed with excitement, startling everybody in the room.

Before her eyes, her living room and kitchen had been turned into every girls dream. There was pink everywhere. Pink plates, and napkins, tablecloths and streamers with pink and white balloons. A pink and white "IT'S A GIRL" Banner hung from the ceiling.

"You guys, this looks amazing!" she said with excitement as she walked past the table that showcased a two tier pink cake with white polka dots. Scattered around the table there was a mixture of pink and white ones everywhere.

Turning back to look at the table again, she reached over and grabbed one and began to unwrap it. Ashley shot her a questioning look.

"What? I'm the one that is pregnant here. Why should I have to wait for everybody to eat?"

Spencer and Aria laughed in the background as pulled items out of the refrigerator and sat them on the counter.

As she began digging into her cupcake the doorbell rang. Looking around, nobody was heading towards the sound. Sitting her cupcake down she said "Fine, I will get it."

Making her way towards the door she opened it and was surprised to see Mona on the other side.

"Mona!"

"Hey Han. You look great!"

"Please. I look like a blimp. Come in" she said as she moved to the side to let her in.

"I uh, I can't stay, but I did want to give you this." She said as she pushed a yellow wrapped box towards Hanna "Don't worry; I got the memo absolutely no dolls." She said with a slight laugh

Taking the present from Mona she shook it.

"Sounds like clothes! I'm so excited!" she squealed.

They laughed

"Are you sure you can't stay?"

"Yeah, I have to head out but I did want to bring that by and say congratulations to the prettiest baby mama ever!"

They embraced in a hug before Mona turned to leave.

Caleb walked down the stairs just as she was shutting the door.

"Hey, as soon as the rest of the guys get here we are going to head on out."

She wrapped her arms around his neck

"Are you sure I can't persuade you to stay? I will even let you open presents." she asked as she placed a kiss on his chin

"Um, baby showers and boys don't mix. We won't be gone long. Plus, this is the first time in a long time you all have been in the same place at the same time."

"Fine. But don't be gone too long."

They clasp hands and walked to join the rest of the group.

"It looks amazing in here. You ladies did an amazing job." He said

"Only the best for our girls." Emily said as she walked by and rubbed Hanna's belly.

The doorbell rang out letting them know more people had arrived. Caleb turned towards the door "I got it" he said as he kissed the top of her head.

As people began to shuffle into the house Caleb rounded up Toby and Ezra. They made their way towards the door.

"Hey Han," he called out as he walked across the room towards where she was standing "We're gonna head out and grab some drinks. I will be back shortly. Have fun. I love you" he said as he placed his hand on her belly and kissed her.

"Hey, I love you too. Don't be too long."

She held onto his hand until their fingers couldn't reach anymore.

As he walked down the hall he passed Spencer as she was shuffling presents from the front door to the table in the kitchen.

"Hey Spence." He whispered

"Yeah."

"There is a box in the closet right by the front door. It's from me. It's a surprise so if you can will you shoot me a text when you get started opening presents and make sure it gets shuffled to the back?"

"Of course."

"Thanks." He said as he looked back towards Hanna who stood in the crowd talking.

He walked towards the group of guys ganged up around the door, waiting to get out of the house "Come on guys." He said as he opened the door and all of them piled out.

"So, Hanna dear…did you guys finally decide on a name?" asked Estelle

"Um, yeah we decided on CaLeanna MaKenzie. We will probably just call her MaKenzie though" she said with a smile as she picked up a chip from her plate.

"Oh, but CaLeanna…that's really pretty. Is that a family name?"

"No, it's um, it's actually a combination of our names. Cale-from Caleb and Anna- from Hanna. CaLeanna."

"Well it's really wonderful."

"Thank you!"

They were interrupted by Ashley

"Everybody! We have some really fun games for you to play tonight so we are going kick things off with 'How Big is Mommy's Belly'"

Hanna sat her plate down and pulled herself out of the chair "Absolutely not! Mommy is huge and she knows it. I don't need people telling me so!"

"Hanna, don't be a party pooper!" Ashley called out as she pulled at the yarn and scissors.

"Hanna, you're not huge. You are beautiful" Ali whispered as she walked passed.

After all the games were over and the cake was cut Spencer walked in with some presents

"Come on Han, it's what you've been waiting on. Presents!"

Hanna squealed as bounced in her seat. Spencer brought over boxes and bags and sat them down in front of her. Walking back over to the table she pulled her phone out of her pocket.

 **Hey, we are starting to open presents now.**

Shoving her phone back into her pocket she grabbed the box from the closet and piled more boxes and bags on top of it to carry into the living room to sit them down beside Hanna in her chair walking across the room she stood by the hallway close to the table so she could bring more in when needed.

Tearing into the paper one by one Hanna went through her presents pretty quickly. Thanking everyone for their gifts with only the occasional crying spell.

Reaching into the pile she pulled up a smaller box and she shook it. It made a thud sound as it hit the inside of the box on the sides.

"Sounds like books. Thanks Aria!"

Laughter erupted from the room

"Hey! You don't know that it's from me or that it is books!"

Pulling the tag off the front of the box she read he name tag aloud

"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents. Love, Aria and Ezra." She deadpanned as she looked up at Aria "Books."

Tearing the paper off the box she pulled out 6 little golden books from the tissue paper and held them up for everybody to see

"I'm just saying. You will need to read something other than a fashion magazine to her for a bedtime story." Aria exclaimed with a shrug of her shoulders.

"I know. Thank you Aunt Aria!"

Picking up a bag she read the tag

"This one is from Toby. Well, this should be good."

Pulling the paper out of the bag she pulled out a onesie that read 'Made in NYC' across the front. Laughing she turned the onesie around so everybody could read it.

"True."

She heard the front door open and heard the guys as they made their way back inside.

"Honey, come here we only have a few left!" Hanna called out

Caleb walked into the room and sat down beside her chair on the floor.

"Here." She said as she handed him a box

He pulled the tag off the top of the box

"This one Is from my mom." He said

Unwrapping the box he pulled out the tissue paper. He gasped as he pulled out an old teddy bear. It was brown and well worn. You could see the stitching from many repairs. Looking up at Hanna he handed her the bear

"This was mine when I was little. I can't believe she kept it."

Pulling the card off the stuffed animal Hanna read it "For my baby boy, for his little girl. Love, mom" she said with tears in her eyes. She handed the note and the bear back to Caleb.

"Well.." she said as she wiped tears from her eyes "I'm glad I let you open that one."

Clearing his throat he said "Okay, whats next?"

"There is one more right here" Spencer said as she handed the box to Hanna. She shot Caleb a look. He smiled back at her.

"You want to open the last one?" she asked as she offered him the box.

"Nah, you go ahead"

Flipping the box over she said "There's not a tag" before starting to pull the paper off. Opening the box and pulling back the tissue paper she began to cry.

"Caleb…" tucked inside of the box was a pale pink dress. "You went back and bought it? I told you it was too expensive." She said as she pulled out the dress that was nothing but ruffles showing it to the crowd.

"I know you did but I figured we could bring her home in it. Every little diva needs a pretty dress." He said with a smile

She began to cry "It's got bloomers too!" she squealed as she pulled them out of the box to show everybody.

Everybody laughed at her excitement

"I love you..." she said as she leaned down to kiss him.

Putting her hands back into the bag she pulled out a small pouch bag that was tucked into the very bottom of the box. Opening the bag she turned it upside down and emptied the contents into her hand. As soon as the diamond ring fell out of the bag she gasped

"Caleb…"

He moved from his spot beside her and knelt down right in front of her chair picking the ring up to hold it in front of her. Everyone in the room gasped

"Hanna, I have loved you since the first moment I saw you. You may never know it, but you saved my life all those years ago. I walked through life so unhappy. You showed me what it was like to be happy and what it was like to love and to be loved. I look back on my life and I know it starts with you. I started living, REALLY living when I met you. I always imagined what it would be like to have a family of my own, and as that gets closer and closer to becoming a reality I know that I am the luckiest man in the world to have those things, with you. I am so lucky that I get to love you Hanna. Our daughter will be the luckiest little girl in the world to have you as her mother. I know I don't have much, but what I do have I want to share with you for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?"

Wiping the tears from her eyes she threw forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, as her lips crushed onto his.

Everybody in the room sobbed and clapped.

Pulling back from each other he finally asked "Well, is that a yes?"

"Yes..." she whispered through tears as he slid the ring onto her finger.


	9. Chapter 9

Hanna jolted up in bed as pain shot through her. Wincing she ran her hand over her belly

Breahte in. Breathe out. Breathe in.

"Hanna, whats wrong?" Caleb sat up in a panic, putting his hand on her back

"Just having some more contractions, that's all." she said as she moved to get out of the bed.

"Do we need to go to the hospital?" he asked as he stood to face her hand

"No, not yet. Go on back to bed. I am just going to walk around for a minute to see if I can ease them some." she said as she waddled towards the door.

"Are you sure? Is that a good idea?"

"We will see. Just go on back to bed. I will wake you up if anything changes."

She stood up on her toes to kiss his lips.

"I love you. Back to bed" she whispered

"I love you too." he said as he climbed back in bed.

Quietly shutting the door behind her Hanna made her way down the the door to the nursery she walked in. Flipping on the light switch she smiled as the yellow walls came to life under the lights.

 _He was right, this did turn out pretty great.._

She thought as she looked around the she had originally made the decision to come back home, she had made arrangements to move back in with her mom and put her things in storage until she could find a job and get a place. That was her plan, until Caleb came back and her plans changed. When they moved back,he got the okay from his boss to relocate from D.C. back to Rosewood, so once they left New York he went on the prowl looking for them a place of their own. They wondered up on a small rent-to-own brick house just a few blocks down from her mom. Rent was affordable and the house was too darling to pass up.

Caleb had been so excited when they had first moved in, the nursery was the first room he painted. He wanted to paint the walls grey, that way it could be for a girl or boy, a heated discussion in the paint aisle of the hardware store, he finally took her comment that "Gray is boring" to heart and they had decided on a pale yellow. Once they found out she was in fact a little girl, they began the process of bedding, deciding on a white floral bedding set with pink and green flowers that he said would look better with the yellow walls as opposed to the hot pink Chevron she had picked out..

Walking over to the crib she ran her fingers over the white rails of the bed. Her mom had given them most of the furniture for the nursery that was once Hanna's..Picking up his old teddy bear from out of the crib she thought about the night he had surprised her with the stayed up all night and worked on it. Putting all the furniture back together and sitting all the books on the shelves and the toys and stuffed animals in the toy box in the corner of the room. Hehad called her up to help him with the bed. When she opened the door he stood beside the crib watching her as she looked around. Of course she cried and he laughed at her.

She rubbed the top of her belly at the thought. That had been the first time either of them had felt her kick Later, when they laid in bed he spent the rest of the night talking to and rubbing her belly to feel it again.

 _Oh we are so ready to see you kid..._

Feeling a wave of contraction pain come over her she braced herself on bed railing until it passed. She turned to head back to the bedroom she looked at the clock

 _Seven minutes...maybe it is time to head to the hospital_

Grabbing some yoga pants out of the drawer she tugged them on and grabbed some flip flops out of the closet that would go with his grey shirt that now fit very snug over her bump, she grabbed the hoodie out of the closet and shut the door. Zipping it up she walked over to his side of the bed to wake him. His eyes popped open immediately.

"Whats wrong?" he asked as he sat up

"They've gotten closer together. They are under 10 minutes apart now. Maybe we should head on to the hospital."

Rubbing his eyes he got out of bed.

"Okay, I will call the hospital." he said as he pulled on a shirt and grabbed his phone from the nightstand

"Thank you. I will call mom." she said as she picked hers up and dialed her moms number. Looking over at the clock she noticed it said 2:15 AM.

 _Dang it..I wont want to wake her up.._

She thought as she heard the ring in her ear. Debating on hanging up and just wanting until it was closer to time, she heard the second ring then her mom picked up

"Hanna? Is everything okay?" she asked. Hanna could hear the concern in hr voice

"Yeah mom. I was just letting you know that we are getting everything ready to head to the hospital Everything is fine, it will probably still be a while if you want to wait."

"No honey, I will meet you there shortly."

"Thanks mom"

"I love you honey! I can't believe you're about to be a mommy!"

"I love you too."

She hung up the phone and took a deep breathe

 _This is it. You're about to be a mom.._

She thought to herself as she picked up the phone to send out the group text. Selecting Aria, Ali, Emily, Ezra, Spencer and Toby, in her contact book she began to type

 **PSA - We are headed to the hospital. No need for anyone to rush or freak out. Will text with more details when we know them - Caleb & Hanna**

Standing up from the bed she felt the tense pain of another contraction. She sat down on the bed to wait for it to pass. She could hear Caleb downstairs on the phone

"Yes ma'am."

"She said under 10 a part."

"Yes ma'am."

"Okay great. We will be there shortly."

Followed by footsteps up the stairs and into the hallway. Opening the door quietly

"Han, the hospital knows we're coming. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, just a little uncomfortable" she said as she rubbed her belly, trying to ease the cramping.

Walking over to her he sat down on the bed right beside her and rubbed her back.

"You ready?"

"Yeah, I um. I just have to get the bags and I will be ready."

"I got them, you just try to relax."

He said as she stood and walked out of the room headed towards the nursery down the hall. After they had everything pack into the car, Caleb helped her down the stairs and out the door as they went to the car. Parked in the driveway they went over their list

"Did you get the diaper bag?" she asked

Looking through all the bags in the backseat he put his hand on the bag "Yes, I have a diaper bag, a bag for you, one for me, What else?"

"Car Seat?"

"Crap! No car seat. It's in the Jeep. I will be right back"

As he returned with car seat in hand and strapped it in the backseat. Walking around he got into the driver side and looked at her.

"This is it.." he said as he placed a kiss on her hand.

Smiling she said, "This is the last time we leave the house just as two."

Kissing her head he said "God, I love you."

"I love you too."


	10. Chapter 10

Pulling into the hospital Caleb drove straight up to the front doors. Putting the car in park he got out of the car and walked around to passenger side opening the door for Hanna as she got out to walk into the hospital. Ashley met them at the front doors helping Hanna into the hospital while Caleb went to park the car and get the bags. Slinging them over his shoulders he raced back into the hospital.

When he made it back inside Hanna was standing at the nurses' station signing paperwork on a clipboard with Ashley behind her. Walking around the counter and nurse came to Hanna with a wheel chair.

"Is that really necessary? I mean I walked from the car..?"

"Hospital policy ma'am" the nurse answered.

He stood back and watched as Hanna rolled her eyes and sat down the in the chair. He couldn't help but laugh

 _Why do you always gotta be so damn hard headed Hanna Marin…_

Walking up behind them he put his hands on the handle of the wheelchair

"I got it, if you just point us in the right direction."

The nurse walked on the left with Ashley on the left as Caleb pushed Hanna down the hallway.

"You will be in room 610, it will be down this hall on your right. Once we get you in and get settled we will come back by and take your vitals and get you all hooked up."

"Lovely." Hanna deadpanned

As they stopped in front of their room and the nurse opened the door and walked in. It was a pretty spacious room with two chairs to one side of the large bed that sat in the middle of the room with monitors on each side. Hanna stood and walked over to the bed as she looked around. Caleb stared at her, noticing the look on her face. He hadn't seen it in a while but he knew what it was

 _Panic. That's what that is…she's panicking._

"Han, you okay?"

"Yeah, I am." She answered as she rubbed her palms together.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, it's just a little intimidating." She said as gestured around to all the machines in the room.

"The machines look really scary, but they aren't, I promise" the nurse said with a wink. "Here is your gown. You can change in the bathroom and I will send your nurse in to start vitals in just a few minutes. Her name is Natalie!" she said

"Thanks." Ashley said from the other side of the room.

Once the door was shut Hanna huffed "It's like 4 AM, who is that excited at 4 AM?"

Caleb walked over to the bed and kissed her forehand

"Easy girl."

Hanna changed into her gown and was in her bed when her nurse came by to take her vital and hook her up to all the monitors. She had started to wince with discomfort as the nurse was standing by her bed, she looked at her watch

"How far apart were your contractions last time you counted?" Natalie asked

"Like 5 or so minutes."

"Well let's get you settled in. We got some time." She said as she offered up a smile

In the coming hours, as Hanna's contractions became for frequent she became more uncomfortable. Caleb paced around the room unable to sit still.

"These are really starting to hurt." She said

"I know baby. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Just come here and hold my hand."

He sat down beside the bed and grabbed her hand, kissing her knuckles.

He thought about the first doctors' visit he came to with her. He was so nervous and anxious. He held her hand then like he did now. When the nurse came in and put the wand to her belly and the sound of the baby's heart beat blared from the machine he realized that he could've missed all of it had things turned out differently. He never missed another appointment after that.

He was pulled from his memory he heard "Knock knock"

As he turned to see Aria, Emily, and Spencer at the door.

"Hi guys, come in" Hanna said

"How are you feeling?" Emily asked

"Ah, you know just busy being a robot." she answered as she moved her arms to show them all the cords attached to her body. "With only the occasional crying spell."

Caleb stood and kissed Hanna on top of her head "I'm gonna give you guys a minute and go grab a cup of coffee."

"Please don't go. What if something happens?"

"Then one of these lovely ladies will come get me." he said as he turned towards the girls who nodded their heads "I won't be gone long, I promise."

Walking out of the room he put his back against the wall right outside the door and sighed.

"Long day already huh?" he heard as he turned his head he saw Ashley walking towards him with two cups of coffee. She handed one over to him and said "You look like you could use this"

"Thanks." he said as he took the cup from her and they turned to walk down towards the waiting room.

Once they arrived in the room it was fairly empty so they took two seats near the vending machines.

"Is it always like this? I mean, she's in a lot of pain.."

"Well, I only had the one but I can say that if childbirth was easy, they would let men do it." she said with a laugh

"Good point" he said as he took a sip of his coffee "I just feel so useless. She's so uncomfortable."

"Caleb, you are doing great. I know it sucks to see her like this but its part of it. Just stay calm. Next tine wont be nearly this stressful, for either of you."

 _Next time...?_

"I tell you what I will head on back there. You just take a minute and chill out in here. I will come get you if anything changes."

"Thanks Ashley"

With that she got up from the chair and grabbed his shoulder before turning around and walking back down the hallway. Sitting back in the chair he took another sip of his coffee and laid his head back against the wall.

 _Next time? Two kids? It IS what you always wanted..._

He got up from his chair and walked down to the other end of the hallway where the nursery was. Looking through the windows at the babies laying their in their little beds. He could tell by the blankets that there were 2 other little girls, and 3 boys. He smiled to himself thinking that in just a few hours, he could stand in that very same spot and watch his little girl through those same windows. He thought about the doctors visit when they found out that she was a little girl. He remembered how as soon as the nurse said it was a girl, Hanna cried as she talked to the nurse about playing dress up and he watched her excitement and he knew that even though he was now going to be outnumbered in his house, that his dreams were coming true right before his eyes.

"Which one is yours?" a man asked as he walked up beside him at the window

"Um, none yet. We are still waiting it out. What about you?"

"Second row, little boy. Brycen. We should be getting discharged soon. Congrats man, there is nothing like it."

"Yeah, thanks. You too."

"Thanks. You just down here clearing your head?"

"Uh, yeah something like that."

"First one?"

Caleb nodded his head

"I know what its like. Don't worry man, She'll turn into a superhero I'm telling you."

Caleb smiled as he turned to the man and stuck his hand out to introduce himself

"Caleb."

The man shook his hand as he said "Jake."

They stood there making small talk for a few more minutes

"Well, I guess I better get in here. But congrats again. There is seriously nothing like it."

"Thanks man."

Caleb called as the man walked into the nursery to get his son. He turned to head back down to their room. Passing by the waiting room he saw Toby and Ezra sitting in there. Holding his finger up, he told them he would be right back as he headed towards their room, walking in the room watched the nurse as she checked everything out again.

"Looks like we are almost ready. I will go get the doctor so he can swing by and check everything out." she said as she turned to walk out.

"We're gonna go ahead and head out into the waiting room, text us updates if you can." Emily said as she held up her phone towards Caleb.

"I will." he said as they walked out. leaving just Ashley left in the room

"How you feeling baby?" she asked her daughter as she rubbed the hairs out of her face

"I'm okay right now."

"If its okay, I want to stay in here with you until they give you your epidural then I will head out on to the waiting room. Caleb will come get me once she's here."

"Yeah, that's fine." she said to her mother, before turning to Caleb "Looks like you got lots of responsibilities mister."

 _There she is, my playful girl.._

"Yeah well, it will do me some good to actually put in some work today instead of watching you do it all." he said as he kissed her head.

The next hour went by in a flash of nurses and beeps as they prepped Hanna, getting her hooked up to more machines and checking on her more and more. Finally coming in and telling her that they would be giving her the epidural soon. Once the nurse left there was no one left in the room but the two of them and the beep of her heart monitor.

BEEP

"I'm scared." she finally said as she fought waves of pain

"Han, there is nothing to be scared of. You are gonna rock this and we are gonna have our little girl and live happily ever after." he said as he scooted closer to the bed holding her hand.

"Rock this? I doubt that. Look at me...I'm wearing a freaking paper towel, looking like I haven't showered in days."

BEEP

"No, you're beautiful."

She gave him a pointed look as they were interrupted by the doctor coming in the door.

BEEP

"Lets have us a baby." he said, soon after they were pushing.

The room turned into chaos with nurses moving around, machines making all kinds of noises. Caleb looked around and it was as if the room went into completely silent, all her could hear was his own heartbeat in his ears. He stood by Hanna in the bed and held her hand and wiped the hair off of her forehead with his other hand as they walked through the breathe exercises they had practiced. Looking down at the doctor he saw his mouth moving but didn't hear any words.

Suddenly Hanna's cries rang in his ears as she pushed jolting him out of his daze

"You're doing too Hanna. Just keep breathing." Natalie called out from the other side of the bed.

"Okay, you're doing great, lets do it again, just like that." he doctor said from the end of the bed.

She cried again as she pushed.

Laying her head back on the bed she turned to him "Caleb, I don't think I can do it again."

"You can, I promise you can and you know why? Because you're strong, the strongest person I know okay? Just squeeze my hand and push. Come on baby."

She shook her head yes as she leaned up to push again, crying out as she did.

"Okay, we have a head!" the doctor yelled "Come on Hanna, one more big push"

"Come on Han, one more. You can do it." he said as he leaned down to kiss her head.

Leaning up, as her face turned red she pushed as hard as she could.

The room fell silent again to Caleb as everything was in slow motion. He saw everybody rushing around. Finally, the piercing cries of the baby filled the room. He gasped for air, not realizing that he ahd been holding his breathe

He watched as the doctor held the baby up and Hanna laid back down onto the bed

"Dad, you want to cut the chord?"

"Hanna, she's beautiful". Looking down at Hanna he kissed her ear "You're beautiful" and then whispered "Thank you."

"Caleb, go with the baby.." she said through sleepy eyes as she swallowed hard

BEEP

"I will. I'm just gonna stay here with you until.."

"Caleb, go with the baby." she said cutting him off.

He kissed her head "I love you so much."

BEEP

He walked over towards the nurse that was on the other side of the room with their daughter. Watched as she cleaned off the baby he heard the buzzing of the machines and the nurses scrambling around the bed.

"Hanna!" the nurse called out "Hanna!"

Watching the madness as it played he looked over at the nurse with the baby "Why-whys it doing that? Whats happening? What's happening to her?" he asked as panic rushed through him

 _Oh my god, no! Please no!_

 _BEEP_

"Hanna!" he called out across the room. as tears filled his eyes

The nurse with the baby began to pushing the cart out while calling "Sir, please come with me."

"No. Whats happening to her? Hanna!"

"Sir, just please come with me." she said as she ushered him out of the door. The room fell silent again as he walked towards the door, not know he was still screaming her name

Just as he reached the door he looked back as he watched them working with her to open her eyes. As he turned the corner he thought he could hear the buzzing of the monitor as it rang out.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP


	11. Chapter 11

The piercing cries of the baby filled the room.

 _Oh, she's crying. Thank god._

The doctor held the baby up as Hanna laid her head back down on the bed.

"Dad, you want to cut the cord?" the doctor asked as he handed Caleb the scissors.

Hanna watched as Caleb's hand shook as he snipped the cord. Tears in both sets of eyes. Suddenly she felt extremely tired, like cannot keep her eyes open tired.

 _Something isn't right. Why can't I keep my eyes open?_

"Hanna, she's beautiful". as he looked down at her, he kissed her ear "You're beautiful" and then whispered "Thank you."

 _Something doesn't feel right._

"Caleb, go with the baby..." she said through sleepy eyes as she swallowed hard

BEEP

"I will. I'm just gonna stay here with you until..."

 _Get him out of here._

"Caleb, go with the baby." she said cutting him off.

He kissed her head "I love you so much."

 _I love you...both_

BEEP

She kept her eyes open long enough to see him go to their daughter. Standing with the nurse as she cleaned her up. She smiled to herself as her eyes started to close. It was as if the room went dark but she could still hear all the sounds. Machines beeping, people shuffling around, Kenzie's cries, and his laughs and excited sobs as he stood over by their daughter. Then she heard the panic screams of the nurse.

"Hanna!" the nurse called out "Hanna!"

 _I'm here...I'm here_

"Why-whys it doing that? What's happening? What's happening to her?" she heard his panic

 _Caleb Rivers, why are you still in here. Take our daughter and go. She's just a baby._

BEEP

"Hanna!"

Suddenly it was as if someone turned the volume down in the room. She was in sudden darkness and silence.

Caleb walked briskly down the hall following the nurse with pushing the cart with the baby. They were headed towards the nursery. As they passed by the waiting room, he looked at and saw all their friends gathered there. He only been able to let them know that they were pushing, so there they sat, waiting for good news. Good news that he didn't have to give them. Ashley looked up and caught a glimpse of them walking down the hall. He looked forward trying to avoid being caught. He didn't want to try and explain what he didn't know.

He heard them as the waiting room door swung open and several sets of feet followed them down the hallway. As they turned to go into the nursery, he shut the door behind them so he could ask questions.

"Can you please tell me what just happened?"

"Sir, all I can tell you is that the doctors and nurses are going to take care of your wife. In the meantime, how about we clean this baby girl up and get her stats so that you can show her off t your family. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like you aren't answering my question."

"That is all I know sir."

Realizing how much of an ass he sounded like he began to apologize "I'm sorry, I am just…"

"I understand. It's a little bit of a tense situation."

He looked down at Kenzie as the nurse kept wiping her off. He might've been crazy but he could already tell that she was such a perfect mix of both of them.

"She looks so much like her mom..." he whispered fighting tears

The nurse looked up at him and offered a sympathetic smile "She is beautiful. They both are. Your wife will be alright. They will not stop working on her, I can promise you that."

Wiping the tears from his eyes he asked "Can I hold her?"

The nurse smiled "Sure. Let's get her swaddled. You know how to swaddle?"

"We uh, we practiced some on a doll in our birthing classes. I'm not very good at it yet though."

The nurse laughed as she said "Okay, well lets practice." as she picked up the swaddling blanket and began to teach him how to swaddle.

Once she was cleaned and swaddled he picked up the precious bundle and sat down in a rocking chair. Holding her, he watched her as she made faces in her sleep he began to think about Hanna again.

 _I can't do this without her. I can't. Please Han, please._

The nurse walked back into the nursery with Ashley on her heels. She squealed as she peaked over into his arms at the baby.

"Caleb, she is beautiful. How much did she weight?"

"Ash- I, um." he stumbled as he began to panic.

 _Just tell her. Just tell her you didn't get any stats because Hanna..._

The nurse, noticing his panic spoke up from behind them "She was 6 pounds 8 ounces and 20 inches long." she said as she looked up from the file and gave him a wink and smile.

"Can I hold her?" Ashley asked in anticipation.

"Yeah, um. I have to talk to you first though. Something happened with Hanna. I'm not sure what but they uh, they are still working on her."

"What do you mean something happened?" she asked as she began to panic herself

Looking down at Kenzie he searched for the words. Words to describe what he little he knew, words that he didn't want to say and he didn't want to hear.

"I don't really know. She told me to go to the baby and as I walked across the room I heard the nurses starting calling her name. They pushed me out of there but she wasn't awake when I left out. I, uh…I don't know anything yet. I'm so scared. Scared to know what happened."

He wiped the tears from his eyes as he looked up at Ashley who stood as if she had seen a ghost with tears in her own eyes.

"Is she…?"

"We don't know yet. The nurse says that the doctor will come and tell me as soon as they find something out."

He stood from the chair and lifted the baby bundle up to his face and kissed her head. He looked over at Ashley who had all eyes on the baby. He handed Kenzie over to Ashley who took her and began to sob immediately.

"She's gonna be okay you know that right? She wouldn't miss this for the world." She said through tears as she held rubbed Kenzie's face. "She may be late to the party, but she'll show."

He shook his head.

 _She's right. Hanna is strong. She will pull through. She wouldn't miss a chance to play dress up with her daughter._

They stood in the nursery for a while before Caleb took the baby out into the hallway to show her off. As Ashley opened the door, he walked out as the group stood by the windows. Gasps and squeals erupted from the girls as they spotted the baby. Aria reached and first, taking the baby from him as he held her out.

The girls began to baby talk as they crowded around the baby. Ashley wrapped her arm around Caleb as he watched them closely.

"Mr. Rivers?"

Caleb turned around to see the doctor coming his way from down the hallway.

Looking back towards their friends who were totally consumed with the baby he headed towards the doctor "Hi, yes. How is she? Is she okay?"

"I know how stressful this has been for you and I am so sorry. These things happen from time to time but they are extremely rare. Hanna is okay."

He was cut off by the gasp from Caleb as he finally breathed in at the news.

 _Thank you. Thank you._

"Her blood pressure dropped extremely low, which caused her to pass out. We got her awake and stable. Again, these things are extremely rare so we apologize for the scare."

"Can I see her?"

"You can. She is currently sleeping though. It may take her a while to become fully awake because of the stress on her body. We are monitoring her, just in case."

"Doc, thank you. I have to ask though; I know I heard the monitor flat line, did she?"

"No. We might've knocked the monitor off of her trying to wake her, but that's all."

He nodded to Caleb as she turned to walk off. With his head in his hands he took a deep breathe to steady himself. He felt the calm wash over him.

 _She's alive. She's alive._

He felt a laugh escape him, before he knew it he was crying.

"Caleb, what'd he say?" Ashley called after him.

He turned back around to face the group. Seven faces full of concern stared back at him.

"She's fine. He said her blood pressure dropped and she passed out. He uh, he said she's sleeping but she was fine. They are monitoring her."

An hour later he sat in a chair beside her bed, with the blanket and baby in a portable bed in front of him. He had been trying to swaddle for 20 minutes with not very much luck.

He had told everybody to go on home and he would text them when she woke up. Everybody went down to the cafeteria and got some food and came right back to sit in the waiting room until they could all see Kenzie and Hanna. He always knew that they had a great group of friends. Having teenager years like they did have proved to him over and over again that they would always be there for each other; today was no different.

"Damn." he said as he got frustrated when he didn't get it tight enough "Han, you gotta hurry up and wake up so you can do this. I just don't have the hang of it yet."

A knock at the door stirred him.

"Mr. Rivers, since Hanna isn't awake yet, it might be best if we just try to bottle feed, if she's hungry." she whispered as she held out a small bottle to him.

Taking it, he said "Thank you. Hey, you by chance know how to swaddle?"

With a laugh the nurse took the blanket and unwrapped Kenzie. "You were really close. You just have to get it tighter" she said as she pulled the blanket and fastened it "There all done."

"Thanks, I uh – I'm trying learn. I was planning on observing for a little while before having to tackle it myself." He said as he picked her up.

Bouncing the baby in his arms he picked up the bottle and started to feed her.

"She gets the whole thing?" he asked

"Yeah, or just however much she will eat of it, just until mom can get waken up enough." She said as she got up "I will be back in a little while to check on you."

"Thanks."

With that she closed the door and left the three of them alone. Caleb sat in the chair, part of him wanted to just wake her up, the other part of him wanted to let her sleep.

 _Let her sleep, she did just give birth like 3 hours ago and you were there, you saw how hard she worked, she deserves to sleep._

"Your mom loves you baby bug. She's gonna be so upset that she is missing all of this. I would wake her up but she did a lot of work to bring her into this world, so we're gonna let her sleep. One thing you will learn about your mom is that she is strong and she is hard headed. She's beautiful and loving. She is going to be a great mom to you and I'm so lucky that I have both of you. I love you so much Kenzie I always will and I want you to know that I will always love your mom. I promise I will learn more from her, and I will try to be the best dad I can be. But just know this, I will never leave you. I promise you that I will never, ever leave you."

He pulled the bottle from her mouth and wiped the extra formula from her face. Standing from the chair, he walked towards the window on the other side of the room, bouncing the baby in his arms.

"First lesson for daddy, baby girl ALWAYS has to have a big bow."

The voice made him whip around, Hanna sat up in the bed with her bright smile across her face.

"Good morning handsome"


	12. Chapter 12

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I have been without a computer.

The sound of the door closing wakes Hanna who squints as she opens her eyes. As they meet the light, she peeks over to her side and sees Caleb. He looks exactly the same as he did before, but now he glows with pride as he feeds their newborn daughter

 _Damn. New daddy glow looks so good on him. I wish I looked that good._

She thinks with the slightest smile plays on her lips. As she starts to roll over and speak she stops when she hears him clear this throat and start to speak.

"Your mom loves you baby bug. She's gonna be so upset that she is missing all of this. I would wake her up but she did a lot of work to bring her into this world, so we're gonna let her sleep..."

Stilling herself she lays there pretending to sleep, she listens to Caleb's declaration as images of their birth experience flash through her mind. Once she remembered hearing everybody screaming her name as she fought to keep her eyes open. Once she was awake again, she looked around the room in panic for Caleb and the baby, but they were nowhere to be found. She panicked thinking that something had happened to Kenzie during labor; nurse Natalie noticed her panic and informed her that everything was fine with the baby. Once the tension in the room calmed down, she had asked Natalie where they were and if she could see them. "We will get them in here as soon as we get you all situated, I promise" Those words had lifted the elephant off of chest and as they worked all around her checking screens and adding monitors to her she felt herself calm and pretty soon she was back to sleep before she ever saw them.

 _First Mom fail Hanna! Before you ever even leave the hospital._

She thinks as she lays there, perfectly still with her eyes screwed shut just listening.

"One thing you will learn about your mom is that she is strong and she is hard headed. She's beautiful and loving. She is going to be a great mom to you and I'm so lucky that I have both of you."

She smiles inside as she hears the sounds of his sweet voice and the sounds of their daughter sucking on the bottle as she eats. She can hear the faintest sound of him bouncing the baby in his arms.

 _Oh, you are so scoring brownie points.._

"I love you so much Kenzie I always will and I want you to know that I will always love your mom. I promise I will learn more from her, and I will try to be the best dad I can be. But just know this, I will never leave you. I promise you that I will never, ever leave you."

She has to concentrate to be perfectly still to keep from crying. She swells with pride inside listening to the words as they roll off his tongue.

 _In just in the matter of hours since she was born, he is already a better one than he had - than I had..._

She hears him stand and his footsteps as she walks past the bed. Once she hears him over on the other side of the room she opens her eyes. Drinking them in as he stands next to the window with his back to her, pink burping cloth draped over his shoulder and hanging down his back. She can see the top of her pink toboggan peek over his shoulder as he bounced her to soothe her. Kenzie makes fussy noises she can barely hear as he shushes her.

 _Is this even real life? How did I ever get so lucky?_

Finally deciding that she had enough observing, she quietly pulls herself up in bed.

"First lesson for daddy, baby girl ALWAYS has to have a big bow."

Her voice stills him for a second, before he whips his head around to her. He stands there and she can finally see Kenzie's face as he holds her extra carefully in his arms. She can't help but smile at him. He blinks once, twice, and on the third time his eyes close they bring a smile with them when they open.

"Good morning handsome"

He clears his throat "Afternoon now, actually." as he paces towards the bed.

"Well, good afternoon handsome. Now, come here and lettme see that baby." she exclaims playfully

He smiles down at the tiny baby as he walks towards her bed. Sitting down just on the edge of the mattress "Fashionably late to the party as always, but Kenzie look mommy is up." he says with a giggle as he hands her over to Hanna.

Taking the tiny bundle into her arms, she stares the newborn as tears well up in her eyes. She looks down at her face, her eyes are closed and cheeks pink. She pouts and then pokes her lips out over and over again, making a smacking noise as she does. This makes Hanna giggle through her tears. Caleb sits beside her just staring at the two of them, leaning over he kisses the side of her head near her temple.

"Hey beautiful" she whispers as she touches the tiny pink cheeks of the newborn "Oh Caleb, she looks so much like you."

"You think so? I think she looks like you, myself." he says as he wraps his arm around her and rubs her back.

"No, she definitely has your nose." she says as she looks up and him and then back down to Kenzie "Same perfectly shaped nose." she says and she runs her fingers lightly down Kenzie's nose letting her finger rest on the tip. "Does she have any hair? Please say she has hair." she asks excitedly as she reached up to pull the hat off of her head.

Caleb laughs, "Yeah, she has some."

Hanna pulls the hat off to reveal a small mass of messy almost white curls on the very top of her head. She smiles and squeals and she runs her fingers over the curls ."Oh this means real big bows!"

"Oh geez," Caleb playfully responds as he looks down at Kenzie "Poor daddy Kenz."

They share a laugh as they stare down at their daughter. Soon a very small knock at the door breaks the comfortable silence. The nurse walks in looking down at the chart in her hand.

"Mr. Rivers how are you two doing?" she asks in a whisper before looking up to see the family of three all sitting in the bed. "Oh, Hanna! You're awake...good! I am Stacy, I am your nurse. Natalie will be back tomorrow morning, but she has gotten me all up to date on your chart. How are you feeling?" she asks in a cheerful voice as she writes down the numbers from the monitor in the chart she's holding.

"Better now." she says as she smiles down at the baby "I do have to pee though." She looks back up at the nurse offering up a sympathetic smile

The nurse laughs as she sits the folders down on the table beside the bed "Well come on, let's get you up and to the bathroom."

Handing the baby back to Caleb she moves her legs so that they hang off the side of the bed "I can go by myself, I just wanted to make sure I could." she says as she starts to slide herself off the mattress.

"Well, you can go but due to blood loss from delivery, it's best that I at least help you to and from in case you feel faint. Don't worry, I won't stay in there with you." she says with a wink and a smile. Grabbing Hanna's arm she helps lift her weight off of the bed

Wincing as she stood up. she finally felt the full effects of labor on her body.

 _Oh man, this hurts. Maybe I don't have to pee as bad as I thought. That bathroom door is a long ways away._

"Han, you okay?" Caleb asks with caution in his voice.

"Yeah, just out of shape, is all."

He watches as they make their way towards the bathroom door as Stacy tells her that once she gets moves around a bit and gets a good night's rest she wont be as sore "More like a hard day at the gym" she said as Hanna laughs.

 _Oh Stacy, if you only knew Hanna Marin_

He thinks as she sits on the bed watching them. As they open up the door and both walk in he can hear their muted voices behind the door. He looks back down at Kenzoe who is now fast asleep.

"WHAT?!" Hanna screams from the bathroom, startling Caleb.

He gets off the bed and walks over to the bathroom door. He can hear Stacy telling Hanna that it is perfectly fine and not to freak out "Everything okay in there?" he asks through the crack in the door. Seconds later Stacy walks out and smiles at him as she turns back to the door.

"Just let me know when you're done and I will be back in to help you." she calls in as she shuts the door and turns back to Caleb "Yes sir, everything is fine. She just wasn't aware of the shower protocol."

In the bathroom Hanna listens as Stacy talks to Caleb outside the door.

 _Ugh, I can't even shower by myself...does a girl get no modesty around here._

She thinks as she stands to make her way to the sink and begins washing her hands. Looking at her reflection in the mirror she huffs to herself. Her hair pulled up on top of her head is pulled into a messy ponytail with stray strands falling down around her face, sweat making them stick to her face. The remains of her eyeliner from the day prior are smudged underneath her eyes that are puffy, mascara flakes on her cheeks. She grabs a paper towel from beside the sink and wet it wipe her eyes off.

 _I know I took my makeup off before I went to sleep yesterday, how did I manage to give myself a really bad smoky eye?_

A knock on the door makes her roll her eyes as she hears Stacy call for her on the other side of the door.

"Hanna, are you okay?"

"Yeah, just washing my face." she calls back as she pulls the tie out of her hair and lets it fall around her face. Pulling it back up and securing it with the tie again she decided that it would have to do until she could get a shower.

"Okay, I'm done." she calls out to Stacy who immediately opens the door and makes her way in. She can see Caleb pacing the floor in the room with Kenzie as they slowly make their way back into the room and to the bed. She looks up to Caleb who is watching them cautiously.

"Okay so Mr. Rivers said that your mom is still here so if you would rather have him or your mom help you with the shower you can do that, but I will have to stay in the room, just in case. Would you feel better that way?"

"Um, yeah I would actually…if that's okay."

"Yes ma'am. Just as long as a nurse is nearby, it will be fine. Shall I go get your mom?"

"Actually, I will go get her. We have some friends still in the waiting room and I need to let them all know she's awake." Caleb steps in.

"Very well. I will go turn your chart in and I will be back in just a few." Stacy says with a smile as she opens the door and walks out with the chart in hand.

"Everybody is still here?" Hanna asks, shocked as she reaches for the baby in Caleb's grasp

"Well of course they are, you know them. I told them to go on home and I would call them once you were awake but they all stayed." he replies as he lays the baby into her arms.

"We got such good friends, you know that."

"Yeah…I know…." he says as he rubs the hat on Kenzie's head. "I will run down there and let them all know you're up and send your mom in so you can shower." He says with a kiss on her forehand. He bends down and kisses Kenzie's hat before turning to make his way to the door.

"Caleb?" Hanna calls after him.

He stops and turns back to her "Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

They exchange a smile and what feels like a silent thank you to each other as he turns and walks out, shutting the door behind him.

As he makes his way down to the waiting room, he peers in at their friends, all sitting on the back row of chairs. They talk to themselves, some of them scrolling through their phones, others on computers. He knows how bored they must be, they have been here for several hours. He looks down at his watch, seeing the time as 3 PM

 _Geez, 10 hours they have been here…_

He thinks as he pulls open the door, catching all their attention. Everybody looks up and stands as he enters, Ashley walking up to him first.

"Caleb, is she awake?" she asks anxiously.

"Yeah, she woke up about an hour ago. She wants to take a shower and she won't let the nurse help her. She wants either me or you to help her."

The girls laugh, as they aren't shocked.

"Yep, totally Hanna." Emily says to Spencer in the background.

"Yeah, no problem. I will head on back and help her." Ashley says as she turns to the group before heading out the door.

"Thank you. I will be back in there in just a few minutes." he called after her as she paced off to the door. Turning back to the group he says "As soon as she gets her shower, you guys can come back if you want. I know you have all been here all day so if you want to go I am sure she will understand."

"We're not going anywhere." Ezra called back to him with a smile.

"Yeah, we will stay at least until we can see her, than we will go and give you guys some time to yourselves, if it's okay." Aria says, the other three girls shaking their heads in agreement.

"Yeah, that's fine. I just know you guys must be tired so I didn't want sit up here all day if you had other things going on." Caleb says with a shrug.

"It's Hanna, other stuff can wait." Allison reassures him with a smile.

He returns her smile, knowing that they mean what they say, they won't go anywhere.

"I gotta get back in there. Once she's situated I will text and everybody can come on back." he says as he walks back towards the door.

Back in the room, Ashley holds Kenzie as Caleb helps Hanna with her shower. Stacy stands outside the bathroom door on guard.

Once Hanna is showered and back in bed, she takes Kenzie from Ashley as Caleb pulls out his phone to text their friends. Selecting Allison, Aria, Emily, Ezra, Spencer, and Toby in his phone book he goes to his text screen and begins to type.

 **Hey guys, she's out and ready to visit so just come on back. If they stop you at the nurse's station, just tell them Stacy said it was fine for you to come back.**

A few minutes later as Caleb sat in the chair next to the bed, watching Hanna baby talk to Kenzie, a knock on the door grabs their attention. Caleb gets up out of the chair and makes his way to the door, opening to face Spencer first, the rest of the crew behind her. Stepping aside he lets them in as they squeal with excitement at the sight of Hanna.

"Hey guys, we've been waiting to see you!" she calls out as she offers them up a megawatt smile.

Spencer makes her way over to the bed, wrapping her arms around

"Hi Spence." Hanna leans in to her hug "Want to hold her?" she asks

"Duh!" Spence responds as she reaches out and takes the baby from Hanna. She turns and makes her way to the chair, offering Caleb a smile as she passes him.

The rest of the girls stand in a line at the bed, hugging Hanna as they all stand around and talk.

"Hey Han, thank for not checking out on us." Toby calls out with a small laugh.

"TOBY!" Spencer yells at him, embarrassed of his outburst.

Hanna can only giggle as she smiles at him "Spence, his fine. Hey Toby, you're welcome."

The girls move into casual conversation talking about Kenzie and Hanna's birth experience as the guys all make their way to the far corner away from the girls and strike up a conversation of their own.

A few hours later, after they had all said their goodbyes, Hanna sat in the bed holding Kenzie in her arms; Caleb sat with his arms wrapped around Hanna.

"The girls said that they would come by tomorrow afternoon to visit." Hanna said through a yawn.

"Yeah, Emily is going to go by and check on the house on her way here."

A knock on the door disturbs them, Stacy sticks her head in the door.

"Hey guys, it's getting late. Do you want me to wheel you a fold out in here to sleep on Mr. Rivers?"

"Um, yeah if you don't mind. It's hard enough sleeping with this one in a king size bed." he points at Hanna, covering his mouth "She steals covers, and she snores." he says in a mock whisper, making Stacy laugh.

"I do not snore!" she exclaims at him in playful disgust.

Stacy smiles at them, "One fold out coming right up." she says as she turns around, closing the door behind her.

"I do not snore." Hanna says to him, yawning again.

He laughs "I know baby." He replies as he kisses her head "You tired?"

"Yeah, I am kind of tired. Shouldn't be, hell I slept all day."

"I wouldn't exactly call that sleeping. You really scared me you know."

"I know" she whispers "I'm sorry."

Stacy knocks on the door again and slings it open pushing a twin size bed into the room with the linens on top of the mattress. Once she gets it into the room and unlatches the hook and the bed falls open. "There you go." She said and she wipes her hands together.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome Mr. Rivers. Hanna, you would you like for us to take her to the nursery or would you rather have her in here tonight?"

"I think she will be fine in here, don't you think?" she asks Caleb

"I'm okay with it if you are." he says with a shrug

"Well we normally request that you try to keep them in room, but you have had a long day so if you want to let her go to the nursery, we would be happy to carry her to the nursery for you tonight, so that you can get some sleep."

Hanna yawns again "Maybe just for a little while. Can I send for her if I want to?"

"Of course."

Later, after they have said their goodbyes and goodnights to their daughter, they curl up in bed. Hanna is asleep before her head ever hits the pillow. Caleb lays in bed for a while and watches her sleep before finally closing his eyes and drifting.

Hanna wakes with a jolt as she feels her cellphone vibrate under her pillow. Hitting them home button she sees that it is 2:40 AM displayed across the screen.

 _Who could be texting me this early?_

Sliding the phone open she opens up to her text screen

 **Babies are beautiful, aren't they? Pop Quiz! Let's see if you were paying attention to yours. -A**


	13. Chapter 13

**Babies are beautiful, aren't they? Pop Quiz! Let's see if you were paying attention to yours. –A**

Hanna blinks several times, making sure she reads the words correctly as her hands begin to shake.

 _This cannot be happening..._

"Caleb!" she yells as she sits up in bed, throwing her legs over the side to get up "Caleb!"

He wakes, opening his eyes slowly "Hanna? What's wrong?" he asks as he sits up in his bed.

"Kenzie" Hanna pleads as she tries to stand to walk over to him, feeling quite faintish as she puts her weight on her feet; she falls back down on the mattress.

In two strides Caleb is by her side. "Kenzie is in the nursery, baby. Everything is fine." He reassures her as her breathing gets more frantic.

"A…the baby...Kenzie." she says as she puts her hand into her hair and begins to cry "Caleb go get Kenzie. Now."

Caleb looks at her with a confused expression "Han, what are you talking? Everything is fi-"she cuts him off by thrusting her phone into his face.

Reading the words, panic rises in his chest as he drops the phone on the bed. Jumping off the bed, he strides over to the door and slings it open. "I'll find her." he says as the walks out of the room, and starts running down the hallway past the nurses' station, to the nursery.

Hanna weeps as she frantically pressed the call button on her bed for the nurse "Come on, come on, come one…" when nobody comes in to her she starts screaming "HELP! HELP!" A few seconds later, a nurse burst into the room "I need help, I have to get down to the nursery. NOW." Hanna calls as she turns to the nurse.

When Caleb reaches the nursery he stands in the hallway looking into the windows. There is a nurse walking around inside which a baby in her arms. Caleb knocks on the window, getting her attention. She holds her finger up as she lays the baby down and makes her way to unlock the nursery door.

"Can I help you?" she asks, sounding quite irritated.

"Yes, I need my daughter please." he says almost out of breathe.

"You could've called the nurses station and asked for us to send her down." she says as she moves to the side to let Caleb through the door.

"You don't understand it's an emergency" he says with urgency.

The nurse shakes her head and smiles "No worries. We have this happen a lot, parents send their babies down here for the first night and they begin to panic. What's your daughter's name?"

Caleb rolls his eyes and runs a hand through his head in exasperation "No you're not listening. It is an actual emergency." He looks at her before finally huffing "Please, just let me see my daughter. Rivers is the last name." he says holding up his wrist showing the nurse her name and stats. They had put one on all three of them just hours earlier.

Looking at the stats she went over to a desk and picked up a chart before turning and making her way down a row of beds and picking up the baby from the bed labeled with his last name. He gasps as relief floods over him.

 _She's in here…thank god._

The nurse walks over to him, lightly bouncing the baby as she does. "See, Mr. Rivers no need to panic. Everything is just fine." She says as she hands the baby over to him.

As soon as the baby is laid in his arms, he immediately knew something wasn't right. "This isn't my daughter." He says as he looks back up at the nurse. "This isn't Kenzie. I promise you. This isn't her."

"Sir, please calm down." The nurse says as she throws her hands up as in defense.

"Look, this is not our daughter. Kenzie has almost white curly hair" he says as he reaches up and pulls the hat off the baby's head to reveal dark straight hair "See, this is not Kenzie."

The nurse gasps as she reaches for the baby who starts to cry. She shushes the baby as she reaches for the bracelet on her on. "I don't understand how this could happen. This is the right ID bracelet and she was in the right bed, but this is the wrong baby..? Don't worry though sir, none of these babies have gone out since last check. There was 8 then and 8 now. Maybe they just got mixed up…"

The nurse walks off with the baby headed towards the scale. Caleb began walking down the rows of beds looking for Kenzie as the nursery door opens and in comes a nurse pushing Hanna in a wheelchair.

"Caleb, did you find her?"

"Not yet, her bracelet is on this baby, but it's not Kenz." He says as he walks over to Hanna and the other nurse "She said that no babies have gone back to any rooms though. Don't worry, we will find her."

"How much did your little girl weight?" the nurse calls out from the scale.

"She was six pounds and eight ounces." Hanna replies with her hand over her mouth

"Yeah, this little girl is 7.5, there is no way this is your little girl." she says as she begins to panic

"Oh my god." Hanna gasps

"How many babies were brought in at last checks?" the nurse that had escorted Hanna into the nursery asks the other nurse.

"Eight. There was eight babies in here at night checks" she says as she picks up a clipboard off the desk handing it over to the other nurse "There was eight in here at night checks and eight in here when I checked at 2 AM."

"Anyone been in here except you?" the nurse asks again as she flips through the paperwork on the clipboard.

"No, the door has been locked and nobody else other than Mr. Rivers has been in here. I have been in here since 11, haven't left."

"Well let's all just calm down and relax. There must be a good explanation for all of this."

"Look, maybe you two can relax, but our baby is missing." Hanna cries as she begins to stand. The nurse pushing the chair grabs Hanna's arm "Let go of me please. I have to find my daughter." She snatches her arm out of the nurses grasp.

Caleb reaches out and grabs Hanna, wrapping his arms around her shoulders "Please, can we just look and see if we can see her?" he asks the nurses

"Yes sir. We will all look" the nurse from the nursery says as she holds the clipboard to her chest and motions towards the front row of baby beds. As they walk they look into each bed examining the babies.

As they pass by the bed labeled Rivers Hanna shutters to herself. Wiping tears from her eyes as she looks the other way as they kept walking. Rounding bed six labeled "Rodriguez" Hanna looks into the small bed and immediately begins to sob as Caleb shakes his head.

"This is Kenzie. This is our daughter." He says to the nurse who is behind them.

She walks around in from of them "Are you sure?"

Hanna cries "Yes, this is our Kenz. I know it by the nose. She has her daddy's nose."

The nurse sits the clipboard down beside the bed and reaches down to pull off the hat that rests on the baby's head to reveal blonde curls. Everybody in the room gasps, picking the baby up, she begins to cry. Hanna reaches out to take the baby and the nurse holds up one finger before walking past them headed back to the scale. Sitting the baby down they watch as the digital numbers read 6.8 in bold red print, the nurse sighs as she turns to the other nurse standing near the door by the abandoned wheelchair.

"Please go get the Rodriguez's and get them to come in and verify that the baby that was in Rivers' bassinet is their baby please."

"Yes ma'am" the nurse says as she turns and closes the door behind her.

The nurse sighs "I honestly do not know how this could have happened." she says as she picks the baby back up and walks over to Hanna and Caleb and places Kenzie is Hanna's arms. "We are so sorry about this. I would just like to reassure you that this is not something that normally happens in our hospital." She says with sympatric shrug

 _Don't worry we won't sue…_

"Yeah I understand" Hanna says as she clutches Kenzie to her chest. "We would just like to get back to our room please." She says as she makes her way back over to the door, Caleb following right behind her.

They walk in silence and Hanna holds Kenzie close, Caleb holding both of them as they find their room again at the end of the hall. Walking in Hanna walks straight to her head and sits down holding Kenzie. Caleb watches them both closely as they wait for a nurse to bring in a small portable bassinet for the baby.

Caleb brings his hands to his face running them through his hear "How could this…"

"I don't know." Hanna cuts him off never taking her eyes off the baby

"Why after all this time?" he says again as he makes his way over to the bed and sits in front of them.

"I don't know." She says again.

A few minutes later a nurse knocks on the door and pushes a bed in for Kenzie. They sit in silence as she sets everything for the baby. Once she has closed the door they both sag with relief.

'You should get on back to sleep…" Caleb finally says

"I can't sleep…" she says, without blinking her wide, panicked eyes.

 _Oh no, the dollhouse look…_

"Look, at least try to lay down and relax."

"Caleb, I can't. I can't sleep now and leave her out in the open for something else to happen."

"Look, we will do this in shifts. I will stay up and watch Kenzie while you rest. You have had a long couple of days. You need to rest."

The buzz of her phone goes off on the table, startling them. Hanna closes her eyes and sighs before reaching for her phone. Flipping it over she hit the home button and slid it open to her text screen.

 **Congratulations! You passed the test. Nighty night. –A**

Hanna hands the phone over to Caleb "See you think I will be able to sleep."

Caleb reads over the message, shaking his head he throws the phone down on the bed "Hanna, I will not let anything happen to this family, to my family. I can promise you that. Okay?"

She nods her head in silence.

"I will stay up and watch both of you while you sleep. Once you are up and your mom or the girls get here, I will catch a nap. Please, just try to relax a little bit."

She nods again as she kisses Kenzie's head and lays her down in the bassinet that sits beside the bed in front of the chair.

Hanna leans forward and Caleb wraps his arms around her as she dam breaks and she begins to cry.

"I was so scared Caleb. She is just a baby."

"I know baby. I know."

Hanna lays down in the bed, grabbing her phone she sends a quick text to Aria, Emily, Spencer, and Allison

 **S.O.S. – A.S.A.P.**

She rolls over towards Caleb who sits in the chair next to the bed. He leans over and kisses her "Goodnight, I love you." he says as her eyes close and sleep takes over.

 _What's your agenda A? Why now?_

He rubs his temples as he feels a headache coming on. He sinks down into the chair, keeping one eye on the bassinet and the other on the bed.

 _Whatever it is, I will do whatever I have to, to protect my family._


	14. Chapter 14

"Are you kidding me? This cannot be happening, AGAIN." Spencer exclaims loudly as she hands Hanna her phone back after reading the offending text.

Hanna throws her finger up to her mouth to shush Spencer to let her know to keep her voice down as she motioned over to Caleb who was curled up in the bed across the room asleep finally.

 _Bless his heart, he's so tired._

She thinks and she looks over at him. He stayed up for hours and let her sleep. Once she was up, he refused to nap until someone was there with her and the baby. She had finally convinced him that she would be okay with Kenzie. He had made her promise that if anything happened she would wake him.

"You haven't told Caleb?" asks Aria who cannot believe what she is hearing while looking at the other girls.

"Yes, I told him. We both had to search over the nursery at 3 AM this morning to find her..."she says as she glances over at Kenzie who is sound asleep in Emily's arms as she sits in the chair beside the bed "But he refused to sleep until someone got here with us...I finally convinced him two hours ago that it would be okay until you got here."

"So A had just moved her from her bed in there and put another baby in hers?" Aria asks again

"Yeah, moved her out of her bassinet and into another baby's and put that baby in her bed, AND changed out their ID bracelets..." Hanna says as a shutter runs through her as she thinks about the early morning drama she had been put through "Now, every person in this hospital has come in here and apologized to us for the mix up. They all think we will hold the hospital responsible or something. I imagine they are doing the same thing to the Rodriguez's whose baby was in the mix up too, I bet they are far less understanding than we are though..."

"Yeah, it is kinda hard to say 'Oh don't worry about it. I am used to having a lunatic torture me and do things like this, so it's no big deal'. Sorry Ali" Emily says apologetically as she stands and hands Kenzie to Aria who takes her place in the chair.

"Still here guys." Allison says sounding hurt "But by the way, Charlotte is still in the hospital so I can almost guarantee you all that this isn't her doings. She is a different person now."

"At this point I don't really care who's doing it, I just don't want them messing with my baby. Mess with me, fine. Mess with my baby, mama bear will bite your ass." Hanna says as she watching Aria with Kenzie

"Well, what are we going to do about this?" Spencer says as she sits down at the foot of the bed in front of Hanna.

"What do you mean? Am I not the only one that has gotten a text?"

"I think so. None of us have had any I don't think" Emily says as she looks around at the other 3 girls who all shake their heads from side to side.

"Well I don't plan on poking the bear if I don't have to. I just want to go on about my life the best way I can and forget this madness has started up again."

"Han, I wish it was that easy, but you know A doesn't give up. She's a relentless bitch." Aria says in a muted tone as if not to wake the sleep baby.

"Yeah, I know..." Hanna whispers as she looks down at her hands knotted in her lap.

 _This isn't going to go away...what will happen to us...?_

"Well, either way you won't be doing this alone. We've been in this mess for so long together, we will get out of this mess together." Emily reassures her.

"HANNA, KENZIE! HANNA!" Caleb screams in his sleep startling all the girls, leaving them to stare in horror as he fights and flips through the covers "GIVE ME MY DAUGHTER! KENZIE!" then he jolts awake in the bed, sitting up and frantically looking around the room.

Aria stands and carefully puts Kenzie in her bassinet "We will just be out in the waiting room..." she says as she looks pointedly at the other girls who all shake their heads and make their way towards the door, shutting it behind them.

"Caleb. It's okay" Hanna calls out as she make her way out of her hospital bed and walks over to his fold out bed and sits down on the corner, rubbing his back as he slowly wakes up.

"Sorry. I just – I had a bad dream. I couldn't find you and Kenzie" he says as he sits up in the bed and puts his elbows on his knees and head in his hands "I was in this dark place and I couldn't find either of you and then I saw you both and I was trying to run to you but every step I took, you moved farther and farther away."

"I know what you mean." she replies back with understanding "A dreams are the worst."

They sit in silence for several minutes before Caleb finally sighs "The girls were in here weren't they? They probably think I am a nut job." as he runs his hands through his hair

Hanna offers up a sarcastic laugh "Yeah, no. Trust me, we are the poster children of nightmares." she says as she leans onto his shoulder.

"How is she this morning?" he asks with a nod of his head towards the baby still sleeping soundly in the bed.

Hanna gets up off of her spot on his bed and walks slowly over to the baby, very gently picking her up and cradling her in her arms "She's fine. She is just a baby Caleb, she doesn't know anything about what happened to her last night." she reassures him as she makes her way back across the room to him, baby in hand. "I would like to keep it that way. I don't need her tortured with the memories of A like I am."

"I know what you mean…" he says as they both sit there, looking down at the small baby. "She's just so small and innocent…Did you tell the girls? Had they gotten any texts too?"

"Yeah, I told them. No they haven't gotten anything. Looks like I am the only unlucky winner of this lottery."

Kenzie wiggles as she wakes and begins to cry. Hanna stands cradling her as she shushes her.

"Has she eaten anything?" he asks concerned as he stands to put on his shoes that have been stashed beside his bed.

"Yeah, she has. She had just gone to sleep when the girls got here. We've only had every nurse, doctor, and orderly come by and apologize for the mishap last night so far…I'm even pretty positive that the janitor came by once." she says with a laugh "I haven't been told, but I am pretty sure they fired the nurse working the nursery, I feel awful. I wish there was some way I could tell them the truth without them thinking that I am the nut job." She explains as she paces, baby in her arms trying to soothe her.

Walking over to her as she paces, Caleb sticks his arms out "Here, give her to me…you shouldn't be up in case you faint." he says as he takes the baby in his arms and rubs the pink hat on her head. Hanna walks to the bed and sits down as Kenzie's cries suddenly die down and soon she is fast asleep in his arms.

"You know, that's not exactly fair. I carried her for nine months, she comes out and is instantly a daddy's girl." she says playfully giving him her best mocking pout.

He laughs back at her "What can I say?" he says as he lays her back down in the bassinet. "Are the girls still here?"

"Um, yeah they said that they were going to go wait in the waiting room."

"Okay, I will go get them and then run down to the cafeteria and grab us some coffee. You want anything else while I am down there?" he asks as he slowly makes his way over to her.

She stands and wraps her arms around his neck "You know, you could be a total sweetheart and grab me a muffin while you're down there…"

"Anything else?" he asks with a smirk on his face

"No, I think that's it." she returns his smile.

"Okay, I will run get the girls and then hit the cafeteria" he says as he leans down and kisses her head before turning and walking out the door.

As he makes his way down the hallway towards the waiting room, he suddenly feels embarrassed by his outburst earlier. Opening the door he spots the girls all sitting around the table in deep discussion. Looking up when he enters they hush their conversation and stand as he approaches.

"Look, I uh" he starts as he rubs his forehead trying to find the words to say "I am sorry about what happened. It's been a long stressful couple of days and with everything that happened last night I uh – I am just sorry if I scared any of you."

"Caleb, don't worry…we know exactly what it is like, the A dreams, the anxiety it causes..." Emily shrugs "We've all been there."

"Are you sure you are okay?" asks Spencer

"Yeah, I will be. I just worry about Hanna. She's had it rough so far; I just don't want her wrapped up in this again."

"We understand. She needs to stay as far away from it as possible. We are all here for you, all three of you. Don't be afraid to ask us for anything." Aria says

"Thanks, you don't know how much that means to us. Actually, I was just about to run down to the cafeteria and grab some coffee and Hanna a muffin, would you mind sitting with her until I get back?"

Hanna is sitting on the bed looking at her cellphone when the girls walk back into the room. Sitting it down, she offers them up a smile as they all file in and sit on the bed with her.

"Look, we all love you and we will all worry about you until we know for sure that you are okay." Spencer says

"Are you okay?" asks Aria

Hanna starts to tear up "Yeah, I am okay I just…I'm so scared for Kenzie." she sobs as she wipes the tears off of her cheeks with the corner of her blanket "I thought that she might could grow up living a normal life. Not ever having to look over her shoulder. Not jumping out of her skin every time a phone goes off near her. I just didn't want her plagued by A, and I thought that it might actually happen…" she says with a shrug

"We all want that Han. It shouldn't be too much to ask to not having to walk your whole life on eggshells." Spencer says as she wraps her arms around Hanna.

"We talked and worked it out in the waiting room, when you come home we want to help you guys with Kenzie. We don't you and Caleb to have to take turns being stressed out over this situation. So, Spencer and I will both take shifts during the daytime hours, helping you with the house and Kenz and letting you both get some sleep…" Aria says as she walks around to the other side of the bed opposite of Spencer and grabs Hanna's hand

"And Emily and I will take the afternoon and evening shifts doing the same." Allison says with a smile

"Toby has agreed to make sure he takes a couple extra rides by your house at night, and he will ask some of the guys at work to do the same…just for your piece of mind." Spencer nods

The tears in Hanna's eyes begin to fall at her friends' gestures "You guys don't have to do that."

"Yeah, we do. We all know what it's like living life with A and you are the first one of us to start a family outside of the five of us…" Emily says as she motions around the circle of them that have gathered around the bed "We have always looked out for each other, now is no different. That is what families do, we look out for each other…and our family just grew by one more." She says as she nods to the bed that holds the sleeping baby.


	15. Chapter 15

Caleb pulls the car back up to the curb outside the hospital and gets out to open the back door. Checking the straps on the car seat base and making sure he had brought down all their bags, putting them all in the hatch so Hanna could sit in the back seat

 _Seems like years ago we were just there getting ready to be admitted, has it only been 3 days?_

He thinks as he waits outside for Hanna and Kenzie. Looking around, he takes in his surroundings looking at every person in the parking lot of the hospital, they are all suspects. He yawns, looking down at his watch.

 _18 hours with little to no sleep. Is this what the dad life is like?_

His thoughts are broken up when he sees the doors open and Hanna come rolling out in a wheelchair. She has a scowl on her face, no doubt because she thinks that having to be wheeled in and out of the hospital is lame. Ashley follows behind them, carrying the pink car seat. Kenzie is tucked inside wearing the ruffled dress they got to bring her home in, and a bow twice the size of her actual head rests on top of her blonde curls. Caleb laughs and rolls his eyes; he had tried to talk Hanna out of the bows for now.

 _Well I can see I have lost this argument…_

 __He walks over to Ashley taking the seat from her and looks down at Hanna who smiles sweetly up at him. "Oh please, don't give me that look." he playfully scolds her as Ashley laughs in the background.

"I told you he would notice." she says to Hanna who rolls her eyes

"What? It matches her dress!" she cries making everybody laugh, nurse included.

When they arrive at the car, Hanna stands and thanks the nurse for "the lift" as she climbs in the back of the car. Caleb walks around to the other side and places the car seat down into the base and gets into the driver seat as Ashley files into the passenger seat. He puts the car into drive and pulls away from the curb, "And we're headed home!" he exclaims as they pull out of the parking lot and onto the highway. 

Ashley had insisted on staying with them for the first few nights, just so they would have a helping hand around the house and with the baby. They both agreed that they would not tell her about the A incident in the hospital, quite frankly neither of them wanted to relive it or talk about it...but she would totally freak if she knew.

Pulling up into the driveway of their home, Hanna began to relax. With all the people in and out of the hospital all the time, she had a hard time trying to relax, to quit thinking that everybody was A and constantly walking on eggshells.

 _Man, it feels good to be home. Nobody in my house but who I let in, no looking over my shoulder all the time._

 __She thinks as she looks over at Kenzie and smiles "We're home baby girl!" she squeals and looks up to meet Caleb's eyes in the rear view mirror; he smiles back at her.

He gets out and grabs the car seat from the base as Ashley makes her way to the back for the bags. Hanna opens her door and steps out; Ashley comes up beside her and offers her arm to Hanna. "I'm okay..." she says as she smiles her mom and slowly makes her way up the driveway and onto the porch. Caleb sits the car seat down on the porch and opens the door into the house before picking up the car seat and walking in. Hanna walks in and takes a deep breathe closing her eyes.

 _Feels like home…smells like home._

She opens them back up and looks around, her eyes fall on a small vase of flowers that sits on the foyer table.

 _As promised, the girls have been by…_

Caleb is in front of her picks up a small piece of paper off the foyer table with his free hand and laughs. Passing it to Hanna she smiles as she reads

 **WELCOME HOME!**

 **We didn't want to intrude on you when you first come home, but we can't wait to come by and visit! Lunch and dinner are in the fridge! Relax and enjoy your first night home with your beautiful baby girl**

 **Love,**

 **S.A.A & E **

**(AND T & E)**

The note accompanies the small vase that sits on the table. Hanna smiles as she rolls her eyes sitting the note back down on the table "We got good friends." she says as she follows Caleb into the living room.

"Yes we do." he replies as he sits the car seat down in the floor and unbuckles Kenzie, picking her up into his arms as he sits down with her on the couch as Hanna follows suit, flopping down beside them.

Ashley sits the bags down in the corner and makes her way to the kitchen "Want me to heat up lunch?" she asks as she slings open the fridge doors and gasps "Yes you do..." she says as she examines the containers in the refrigerator "Hanna, there must be lunch and dinner in here for the rest of the week!" she exclaims.

Hanna gets up from her spot on the couch and walks slowly towards the breakfast bar leaning against a barstool there to look into the fridge behind her mom. There are two large plastic containers in the fridge, and at least 10 or 15 more in the freezer. Hanna's mouth drops open "Caleb, she's not lying. This thing is full of food."

Caleb laughs "I bet. Those girls don't half ass anything." he says never looking up from Kenzie. Hanna watches them from the bar stool and smiles

 _God, look at him. He loves her..._

She thinks as she makes her way back to the couch, sitting down carefully beside them on the couch. Caleb briefly looks over his shoulder at her and leans over and kisses her she as she smiles down at the baby. She looks up at him and their eyes meet as he mouths _thank you_.

The microwave dings making Hanna's eyes light up.

 _Gosh, I am starving._

Hanna stands as she walks over to the bar and waits as Ashley makes a couple sandwiches, sitting one on the plate for Hanna. As she takes the first bite, Kenzie wakes and begins to cry. Sitting her sandwich back on her plate she turns to look at Caleb watching as tries to soothe her cries.

 _Oh, you're killing me kid…_

She briefly thinks as she turns to get up.

"I got this, you just eat. You hardly touched any of your hospital food." He says as she stands to bounce the baby in his arms. Hanna smiles once more as she watches him.

 _Wrapped around his little finger already? Kenzie Kenzie Kenzie..._

Later that night, after Ashley had retreated to the spare room on the first floor, Hanna and Caleb laid in bed. Kenzie asleep peacefully in the bassinet near the bed, they speak quietly careful not to wake her.

"You should get some sleep. You haven't had any in over 24 hours" Hanna says as she lays with her head on his chest. She looks up at him, he lays with one arm around her, the other behind his head "We will be find, I promise."

"I will sleep…at some point." He says groggily

"Caleb, please…just try to get some sleep. I won't leave the room; I will sit right here and read."

"Are you sure you're not too tired to stay up by yourself?" he asks through a yawn.

Hanna giggles, "Yeah I am sure. I will be fine. Just get you some rest." she says as she sits up in the bed. She leans forward and kisses him.

"Wake me if you start to doze?"

"I will, I promise. I love you."

"I love you too." he replies as she kisses her again and rolls over onto his side away from her.

Hanna grabs her Kindle off of her nightstand and turns it on. Opening the screen, it lights up as she begins to scan the pages of the pregnancy book she had begun reading before they went into the hospital. Glancing over she looks at the bassinet and smiles to herself watching Kenzie snooze under the covers. Caleb begins to lightly snore beside her, catching her attention as she turns to look at him.

 _Thank god, he was too tired…_

An hour later she has just finished up reading her book and takes out her phone to surf the internet. Logging into her Facebook she sees several congratulatory posts on her wall, she begins to reply to them thanking every person for their kind words. As she reaches her last post a light in the driveway catches her eye. Panic rises in her chest as she glances at the clock that reads 12:45 AM.

She jumps out of bed and pulls the blinds open to peek outside; relieved to see that it is just a Rosewood Police cruiser that has pulled into the driveway. A spotlight comes on from the light bar on top of the car and moves around. He waits for a few minutes before backing out and turning back onto the road.

 _Thanks Toby…we really do have great friends…_

She sits back down into bed and turns on the TV. Putting it on mute, she begins to flip through the channels, looking for something to watch, on mute of course…not to wake anyone that is sleeping in the room. Infomercial, after infomercial invades the channels; huffing she turns the TV off. She opens up the drawer to her nightstand and pulls out her sketch pad.

 _Maybe I could sketch some…it used to help me pass the time…_

She thinks as she picks up her pencil from the drawer and moves to the chair by the window to use the light from the street to see by. Just as she begins to get into the routine of sketching Kenzie wakes and begins to cry. Sitting her stuff down she walks to the bassinet quickly to pick her up before Caleb wakes. Picking up the baby she shushes her as she begins to lightly bounce the baby in her arms.

 _Crap! She's hungry…her bottles are downstairs and I told him I wouldn't leave. Oh well!_

She makes her way to the door closing it quietly behind her as she makes her way downstairs to the kitchen. She lays Kenzie down in the bassinet downstairs while she hastily makes a bottle. Once she is done she makes her way back into the living room, picking the baby up she begins to suck on the bottle. Hanna quickly makes her way back upstairs, quietly tiptoeing up the stairs and back down the hallway to their bedroom. She opens the door and sneaks back inside unnoticed or so it seems.

"I'm up." he says as he rolls over, "She hungry?"

"Yeah, her bottles were downstairs."

He sits up and turns on the bedside lamp as he crosses his legs Indian style under the covers. She sits down beside him in bed, mirroring his actions. They sit in silence both staring down at the baby while she eats.

"It won't always be like this you know…always worrying. Well, always worrying but not always about A." Hanna whispers.

He laughs "I hope not."

"It won't. I will not let A run our daughter's life, like she ran ours. She doesn't deserve that."

"Han, you didn't either."

"I don't know…maybe I didn't or maybe I did in some way, but either way, I won't let it continue, not with her."

"You're a great mother Han. I know she's only a few days old…but even with the extra stress you've been put under, you've been great with her."

"You're a great father. I haven't said anything, and I was going to but I heard you talking to her while I was asleep. How you promised to never leave…to be a better father than either of us had…you're amazing at this Caleb. We are lucky."

They stare at each other for a long time, never saying another word. Hanna looks down at Kenzie and takes the bottle from her mouth. She stands and places the baby on her shoulders and lightly taps her back with her hand to burp her. She looks up at Caleb who watches them closely never taking her eyes off of his.

"Kenzie, your daddy is stubborn and strong. He is simple, and complicated. He loves you more than anything else in this world, and he is going to knock this whole father-daughter thing out of the park. When you're a teenager, you may not like how he treats your boyfriends, or how he will dictate what you wear, but know that he comes from a good place. He will never, ever leave you, I can promise you that. Ever since he was little, all he ever wanted was a family and now, well kid you and me are it. He's a good man and will always take care of you. Keep doing what you're doing and keep him wrapper around your little fingers because he loves you. And I love you, and I love him."

Caleb watches her, tears in his eyes as he stands and walks over to them. He wraps them in his arms and kisses Hanna's head and whispers "I love you."


	16. Chapter 16

A few hours later, Kenzie is back asleep in her bassinet as Hanna and Caleb both lay in complete silence in their bed. Both sets of eyes are closed and they are resting but by no means are they sleeping. She rolls onto her side and drapes her arm over his chest as he sighs and puts his hand on her elbow. They lay like this in silence for a long time, just listening to their own breathing and the clicking of the clock.

Hanna sighs finally breaking the silence "You awake?"

"Yep." he says as he returns her sigh

"What are you thinking about?"

"Europe..."

 _Oh. That's new. ._

She frowns "What about it?"

"Just about how different things are now than they were then.." he says as she rolls over onto his side to face her "I think about it from time to time...Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade the life we have now for anything...I just wonder how different it would've been if I would have come straight back to you."

"I know what you mean. I think about how different things would've been if I would've stayed and went with you...but why mess with time, ya know? I mean we are engaged and we have a beautiful daughter...which one of those things was already in the works...but if we would have done something differently, would we be where we are now?"

He smiles then frowns at her "Actually, both of those things were already in the works, Han." he grabs her hand and kisses her knuckles "I had bought that ring a couple months before we were supposed to leave. I had planned to propose on our trip..."

 _WHAT?!_

She thinks as she sits up in bed and whisper-screams it at him "What?!" then immediately looks over at the bassinet before turning back to Caleb "You never said.." she looks at him and watches as he sits up in bed beside her "Why haven't you ever said anything?"

"Well, for one when I finally did come back I was too focused on fixing us, and the future and then being parents than I was what didn't happen in Europe. I knew there would be another time when I could ask you, and I don't think I would change how it happened at all now." he says with a shrug "I've wanted to marry you for a long time Han, not just after finding out we were going to be parents...So, I had to delay the proposal for a while...so what? I wouldn't change it for the world.." he says as he reaches out and strokes her cheek with his thumb "I mean, I would probably change the three months we spent apart if given the chance and all the early pregnancy things I missed but nothing else."

She leans into his touch and looks down at her hands, suddenly feeling the small tinge of sadness "I'm sorry..." she says before looking back up into his eyes "I'm sorry I ruined it the first time. I uh, I used to imagine how you would propose to me all the time...and Europe...I never..." he opens his mouth to say something but she cuts him off "I'm just sorry..."

"Don't be. We figured it out, and I asked when I thought the time was right and you said yes...and now we have Kenzie. That's all that matters. Not trips, or sunsets and perfect proposals..."

Hanna laughs through the tears that have welled up in the corner of her eyes "Well, your second chance at a proposal was pretty perfect."

He shares a laugh with her "Yeah, it was pretty awesome right?" he says before he leans over to kiss her.

"Mom mentioned having the wedding at The Radley..."

"Yeah?" he asks, interested "Is that what you want?"

"I don't know it would be easier and I mean it seems like the perfect thing for us now, but what if it's not when we actually set a date to get married? I know we both want Kenzie to be a little older so we have time to change our minds..."

"Yeah, that is true. You do whatever you want with the wedding Han. I want you to have the wedding you have always dreamed of...just not to Matt Damon or whoever you and Mona used to imagine" he says and they share a laugh "If you want to wait, we will wait...if you don't then we won't."

"What if I want to have a huge blowout wedding in the Hamptons?" she asks playfully

He laughs and shakes his head "Well, I will need to get two more jobs to afford it, but that's what we will do."

"Elope?" she tries again

"Viva Las Vegas." he answers quickly, making her smile.

Kenzie stirs and wakes with a loud cry that makes Hanna jump. She moves to get up and he grabs her hand.

"Hey, I've got it." he says as he leans over and kisses her before getting out of the bed and walking over to the bassinet. He leans down and picks up the baby, kissing her head as he shushes her. She quiets down almost immediately.

Hanna lays back down in bed and watches him with the baby and smiles. She glances at the clock noticing the time, 4:15 AM "She's probably hungry again. You want me to go get a bottle ready?"

He walks over to the bed where she lays "No, I want you to get some sleep. It's my turn." he says as he walks over to his side of the bed and picks up his cellphone. He puts in in the pocket of his pajama pants and as he stands lights outside the window catch his eye. He walks over to the window and starts to open the blinds.

Hanna yawns "It's just Toby. He's making his rounds." she says without ever looking up from her spot in the bed.

"Has he already been by?" he asks as he watches the cruiser pull into the driveway and stop.

"Yeah, he came by earlier." she says sleepily as she snuggles down under the covers.

He stands watching as the cruiser's spotlight on the top of the car comes on. He looks down at Hanna "Get you some sleep. I am going to feed her, I will be back up in a little while." he whispers as he walks out of the bedroom, quietly shutting the door behind him as he turns to make his way down the stairs. Pulling out his cellphone he sends a quick text to Toby.

 **Thanks for coming by man, we really appreciate it.**

He hits send as he makes his way to the bassinet in the living room to sit Kenzie down while he makes the bottle. His cell buzzes in his pocket, pulling it out he sees a text from Toby, he slides his phone open to his text screen.

 **Not a problem. Were you up or did I wake you?**

He lays his phone down on the counter as Kenzie begins to cry again, he hurries to make her bottle. He walks across the living room, picking her up out of the bassinet and makes his way back over to the kitchen to finish the makings of the bottle and he picks up his phone again and hits the send button to call Toby, placing the phone in between his shoulder and his face as he pops it into her mouth once the temperature is checked.

Toby answers on the first ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey, sorry for calling. Daddy duty calls so I don't have a free hand to text."

"That's cool. You guys up?"

"Yeah we were up."

"Cool. I am just down the block...I will swing back by for a minute."

"Okay man." he says as he drops the phone from his shoulder onto the counter.

Caleb holds Kenzie and the bottle as he walks towards the door to wait for Toby. He stands watching out the window beside the door. When he sees the cruiser pull back up into the driveway and cut the engine, he unlocks and opens the door for his friend. Toby gets out of the car and stalks towards the house and walks into the opened door as Caleb moves to the side to let him through, shutting the door behind them.

"Hey man, thanks again for coming by and checking things out for us."

"No problem. Where's Hanna?"

"She's upstairs, hopefully asleep. She was up with Kenz the first time you came by so I told her it was my turn."

"First night home going pretty good?" Toby asks as he peeks over at Kenzie who eats from the bottle in Caleb's hand

"Not bad actually. We are still a little jumpy but so far so good."

Hanna opens their bedroom door and starts to walk downstairs to check on Caleb and the baby. She stops at the third stair down when she hears voices in the kitchen. Recognizing the voice as Toby's she sits down on the stairs not to interrupt them. She listens tentatively to their conversation

"Good. You know, these girls have been through so much crap with A, it's past time for it to quit happening." Toby says as he leans against the stair railing at the bottom of the stairs. "Can I hold her?" he asks Caleb

"Absolutely." Caleb says as she hands the baby over to Toby then hands him the bottle as Kenzie starts to cry again until he gives her the bottle back.

Toby looks down at the tiny baby before looking back to Caleb "How's dad life treating you? You sleeping?"

Caleb has his eyes locked on Kenzie lying in Toby's arms and laughs before replying "Very little. I mean, she's sleeps a good bit so we try to get a nap in when she does...but I have a hard time sleeping and leaving her and Hanna alone by themselves. I have this fierce need to protect them both." he stops and laughs a little before continuing "You and I both know that Hanna is very much capable of handling herself..."

Hanna silently laughs on the stairs to herself as Toby laughs and replies "Yeah, she's a tough one."

"Yeah, but she shouldn't have to be as tough as she is. And Kenzie, I mean she's just a baby. I just don't know what I would do if anything ever happened to them so I have this uncontrollable urge to always be with them."

"Yeah, I know what you mean...with Spence I mean...but I'm sure it's different with a baby" Toby says with a laugh

Caleb clears his throat "They are without a doubt the two best things that ever happened to me."

"Sounds like something a father and husband would say." Toby says back to him.

"Yeah..." he laughs "I guess so..." Caleb whispers

They stand in silence before Toby makes a boyish attempt at baby talk to Kenzie mentioning something about Uncle T that makes Caleb laugh. His radio going off on his shoulder fills the room and he listens tentatively as they ramble off call numbers and locations. Hanna wipes the tears that form in her eyes away as she gets up from her spot on the stairs and walks back into their bedroom to keep from being caught eavesdropping.

"I guess I better go back them up." he says to Caleb as he lays Kenzie back into Caleb's arms "I will swing back by before the end of my shift, just to check things out."

"Okay, thanks Toby. We really appreciate it. Be careful out there."

Toby offers him up a smile as he opens the door and walks out shutting it behind him. Caleb reaches out and locks the door after he is gone. He walks towards the living room, sitting the bottle down on the counter as he passes by.

"Just you and me for a little while baby girl." he says as he picks up a burp cloth from the diaper bag in the living room and throws it over his shoulder as he makes his way to the couch. He sits down on the end of the couch and grabs the TV remote from the table before he lays back against the back. Turning the TV on he finds a show he is interested in and cuts the volume almost all the way down "We will let mom sleep." he makes himself comfortable.

Hanna stretches out in bed and reaches over to Caleb's side of the bed; it's empty. She glances at the clock that reads 8:25 AM as she sits up in a startled daze and looks around the room the bassinet is empty too, panic rises in her throat.

 _Oh no, what's happened?!_

She thinks as she jumps up from the bed and walks over to the empty bed and pulls the covers out as if to find a sleeping baby under them, nothing. She slings the door open and stalks down the hallway to the nursery and slings the door open, the room is empty.

 _OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD._

She turns quickly and heads back down the hallway, past their bedroom door and down the stairs as quickly as she can manage. Thoughts of what A could have done with them floods her mind. When she reaches the bottom stair she holds onto the banister as she swings around the corner and into the foyer heading in the direction of the living room.

As she reaches the entryway into the living room and kitchen she lets out the breath she had been holding when she sees her mom in the kitchen standing at the island, heating up breakfast on the stove top there. Ashley looks up and gives her a confused look which she assumes is to counter the look of panic that Hanna shows on her face. Hanna straightens herself up and plasters a smile on her face as she makes her way over to the coffee pot on the corner, trying her best to hide the worry she felt waking up not being able to find them.

"Good morning" she exclaims as she reaches for a mug to pour herself a cup of coffee. She watches her mom out of the corner of her eye, and she looks slightly worried and confused

 _Crap! Good going, we said we were going to act like everything was fine and you go and act like a maniac._

"Good morning" her mom half whispers to her and throws her finger up over her lips "You will have to heat that. Caleb made it when got up. What time did he get up?"

 _Oh good. They are here. They are safe._

She sighs as she looks around the room giving her mom a questioning look as if to say where are they. Ashley points over into the living room and mouths couch at her with a smile. Hanna quietly sits her cup down on the counter and tiptoes over to the back of the couch that faces the kitchen island and peeks over. There he lays on his back and Kenzie sprawled out on his chest, both of them asleep. She notices that they are twisted into the same position and she smiles.

 _Great! Not only does she look like him, she sleeps like him too. What did you get from me kid? Besides what looks to be unruly blonde hair._

She shakes her head and smiles as she turns back to face her mom "I got up around 1 with her and he got up around 4. He said he was going to come back to bed once he got her fed but I don't guess he ever did." she says as she grabs her cup and sits down in the bar stool at the kitchen island counter.

Ashley smiles at her as she sits a plate of food down in front of her and walks around to sit beside her daughter "He willingly got up...like without you having to ask him?" Hanna shakes her head "Well it's a good thing you scooped him up. They don't make them like that anymore." she says with a laugh and a sip of her coffee. "You want to go wake him so he eat while I watch the baby? I have to head into work but I wanted to make sure you two were settled before I left." she says as she glances down at her watch.

"No, let him sleep. I will make him something when he wakes up." she says as she picks up her fork and cuts into her eggs.

"Okay, it's already made. Biscuits, sausage and bacon are in the oven, eggs are in the microwave. Don't let them get too cold, they won't be any good heated up." she says as she gets up from her chair and grabs her purse from the dining table. She grabs her keys and cell off the counter and holds her phone up "I will have my phone on me all day, so if you need me, please call. I can come back at any time." she says with a smile.

Hanna returns her smile "Thanks mom, I will call if I need anything." she says as she glances back in the direction of a sleeping Caleb and Kenzie.

Ashley walks over to her and puts her hands on Hanna's shoulders "Oh honey, I am so proud of you. You two are doing so well with this. Your dad and I...we were not nearly this prepared when we had you and we didn't work it out as well as you and Caleb have. Enjoy these moments with her, because pretty soon...you'll be cooking breakfast for her on her first day home with her daughter." she says with tears in her eyes.

 _Oh mom, please! I can't take anymore emotions right now..._

Ashley wipes underneath her eyes to fix her eye makeup "Oh listen at me, getting all deep first thing in the morning." she says with a laugh "Anyway, I just want you to know that I am so proud of you and Caleb. You are going to be great parents."

Hanna clears her throat "Thanks" is all she can whisper past the lump that has formed from fighting back her tears.

Ashley hugs her and walks towards the front door to leave. Pausing momentarily to look back over the couch at Caleb and Kenzie. She pulls her phone out of her dress pants pocket and snaps a picture. She puts her hand on her chest and over her heart as she glances back over her shoulder at Hanna. She gives a small wave and yet again wipes the tears from her eyes and makes her way to the front door, shutting it behind her as she leaves.

Hanna picks up her coffee cup and walks over to the chair that is positioned adjacent to the couch. She sinks down in the chair putting her back on the side and pulls her knees up to her chest. She holds her coffee cup in her hand as she sits there admiring the view with a ridiculous grin spread across her face.

 _Well it's a good thing you scooped him up. They don't make them like that anymore._

Her mom's words ring in her head once more.

 _You ain't lyin'. How on earth did I manage to scoop up such an understanding, loving, protecting man like him? He is such a wonderful father, and he loves her so much. He loves me and wants to spend the rest of his life with me. Even with all my A-ness and drama. He's never run from it, even when he should have...even when I told him too, he has always stayed. Proposal in Europe...before we knew we were pregnant, why did I screw that up? How could I screw it up? Even after all our fighting in New York and never getting to really see each other...he still wanted to marry me. Why had New York been so hard for us, why did we even fight so much? Oh yeah, I had put our relationship on the back burner to pursue a career...that's why. But even then he had plans...he had planned to take the ultimate leap of faith with me, and I walked out on him. Would I change it if I could? Of course. I would take back those three months without him in a second. Not that I can now, or that it matters. We found our way back and we are stronger than ever, I know that for a fact. He is going to be such an amazing husband. Plus, he's freaking hot, and this daddy thing...looks so good on him. We make pretty adorable kids too._

Caleb stirs on the couch, interrupting Hanna's thoughts as she watches him. He opens his eyes and shut them quickly then they fling open in panic. Hanna smiles to herself as she watches him register that he'd fallen asleep with Kenzie on his chest. He looks down at the sleeping baby and carefully sits up cradling her as he does.

"Oh my god, Hanna I did not mean to fall asleep with her like that. She was fussy and that was the only way I could get to her calm down." the spouts quickly as she places her in the bassinet.

"Hey, calm down. It's okay." she says as she sits her coffee cup on the side and table.

He runs his hands through his hair as if in disgust "No, it's not! What if she would have rolled off of me and fell? What if I would have rolled over on her? What if -" she cuts him off?

"Caleb, you would have noticed all those things before they ever happened. You're more in tune to that stuff than you think, trust me."

He paces back and forth mentally punishing himself for falling asleep. She watches him and a smile creeps onto her face as she whispers "There it is." under her breathe. He stops in his tracks and looks at her confused. She pauses for a moment, unable to believe that she had just said it aloud.

"What?" he says with a puzzled look on his face.

"I said there it is. The butterfly feeling I get in my stomach when you do something amazing and make me fall in love all over again." she says as she steps closer to him "I get it a lot...I always have. I get it when you say something totally sweet or when you say what I am thinking or finish my sentences. I get it when I watch you as you concentrate on some code or something that I don't understand on the computer. I get it when I see you with Kenzie." she says as she closes in the distance between them.

"Let's get married." she whispers as she looks up at him.

He wraps his arms around her "We are…?" he says confused "I thought that was what the whole proposal and I bought you this ring, will you wear it for the rest of your life was for?"

"No, I mean now. Let's get married now." she says with a smile.

He looks down and laughs "Let me change clothes and we will head to the courthouse."

"No I don't mean like right now, NOW. I just mean I don't wait to wait for years like we had talked about."

"But I thought you said –"

"That I said I wanted Kenz to be a little older so she could be in the wedding, I know. But I've changed my mind and I don't think her feelings would be hurt if we tell her the truth." she says sweetly

"Oh yeah, and what's that truth?"

"That mommy loved daddy so much that she couldn't wait." she stands up on her tip toes and plants a kiss on his mouth.

"You want to get married then? Soon?"

"As soon as I can get it planned." she says as she raises her eyebrows

He sighs "Okay. Let's get married."

"I cannot wait to marry you." Hanna squeals as he picks her up and swings her in his arms around in a circle.


	17. Chapter 17

Hanna sits on the couch, sketch book in hand with fabrics and laces all scattered on the table in front of her. Kenzie sleeps soundly in the swing positioned in front of her. She sits her book down and grabs the Bride magazine that lays beside her on the couch and flips the pages with irritation.

 _Why did I decide that it would be a good idea for me to EVER design my own dress?_

She thinks with a scowl on her face as she flips through and scans the pages rather quickly. Stopping on a page that displays several bouquet options, a white and pink rose bundle catching her eye. She grabs her sharpie and circles the bouquet before flipping the page on her search for something else to motivate her to get this dress at least halfway sketched down on paper.

It had been two weeks since she talked to Laurie and her old boss Estelle who had called via Facetime to check on the family. While on the call, Estelle asked if Hanna had any time to make any wedding decisions yet, Hanna rambled off what wedding details she had ironed out so far. She followed that up with asking Estelle if she could wear a dress from her up and coming wedding dress line. Estelle had responded with "Hanna, darling. I am definitely flattered but why don't we try to work on something together? You have the talent and not working for your horribly bossy, ex boss you can get it done at home while you take care of that precious baby!. Why don't I just send you some fabric samples and we can work on it together." At the time, Hanna was absolutely floored that Estelle would counter with such an amazing offer, but now...she was unsure that she could fulfill those shoes as a designer.

 _Maybe Estelle will understand and offer up one of hers instead. Maybe she will know that I haven't been sleeping, and hardly have any time to concentrate on drawings or fabrics, or magazines... Or that I haven't had a spare moment when Caleb isn't around where he can see THE dress - sketch or otherwise because we have an A-hole that we are constantly looking our shoulders for? Yeah no...can't tell her that one._

Hanna huffs and groans inwardly as she sinks back onto the arm of the couch. Closing her eyes she puts her fingers on either side of the bridge of her nose to fight off the oncoming headache that throbs in her head. Suddenly she hears the clanging of keys outside the front door. Jumping up from her spot on the couch she hurriedly grabs all the materials from the table and tries to slide them in the bag so that he won't see them. As the door opens, she hears the clicking of heels on the hardwood floor and its a welcoming sound that simmers her sudden panic

"Hanna?" Aria calls out from the foyer and she shuts the door behind her

"In here" Hanna calls out in a muted tone, careful not to wake the baby

In the 6 weeks since they had been home from the hospital, and the girls had kept their word on coming by and helping them. Taking turns, each one of them had come on their planned out morning and afternoon shifts to help, even when they were told they didn't have to. The help was appreciated though, as they were still very paranoid. No more threatening texts had been delivered, but Caleb still refused to leave Hanna and Kenzie alone, today being the only exception since they came home. Ashley had experienced some issues with the computer system at the hotel, which required immediate attention.

Aria rounds the corner overloaded with various bags and offers up a smile. Since coming back to Rosewood, her and Ezra had ventured into book writing together, so she worked from home most days. She worked from the Rivers' home on days when she was on "duty". Sitting down her laptop on the table, she drops the other bags on the bar in the kitchen before making her way back into the living room.

"Sorry I'm late, brought us some lunch." she whispers as she points over her shoulder to the bags from The Brew.

"Late?" Hanna asks in confusion

 _Geez, she's taking it like its a for real job..._

"Yeah...? Caleb called and said he had to run out quickly so he wanted to know if I could come over."

 _Oh. I knew he wouldn't be able to chill out._

"Yeah, mom's computers went down at The Radley so she's like pretty much stranded not being able to process anything. She thinks it might have been hacked so he went to check it out. I told him we would be fine. Sorry you had to put your life on hold to come babysit." Hanna says with an apologetic shrug

"Hey, it's not a problem. I just had some chapters to re-read and edit for the book so the distraction for a little while is nice. Plus, I'd never miss a chance to hang out with my best girls." she says as smiles in the direction of Kenzie. Looking down at the table she picks up a scrap of material and looks up at Hanna in confusion "Whats all this?" she asks holding it up.

"Oh you know, wedding dress material."

"WHAT?!" she asks as a huge smile spread across her face "You're gonna do it yourself?"

"Well... not exactly. You remember the designer I worked for in New York, Estelle?" she asks and Aria nods yes "Well, she called a couple weeks ago to check on us and we got to talking wedding and I asked her if I could snag a dress from her upcoming line I got to preview before leaving New York and she suggested that we try to design something together so she sent all these fabrics and swatches for me to look over and get some ideas..." she trails off as she picks up the lace that lays at her end of the table "So far, nothing." she says with a laugh as she tosses the lace back into the bag and lays back on the couch with her hands running through her hair.

"Hanna, that's amazing." she says as she stands and walks over to the couch to sit beside Hanna "You don't have anything in mind?"

"Not really. The only thing I can think of that I want is I want Caleb to wear an ivory colored suit...like the one from prom, you remember that? The prom that we were so rudely not invited to." she asks with a look of disgust.

Aria runs her finger over her lips as she thinks "Vaguely..." as soon as the words come out of her mouth, her eyes lit up with an idea "Oh yeah, you wore the white and gold, high-low kinda off the shoulder dress?"she says as she stares straight ahead but makes a motion off her shoulders as she says it.

"Yes, that one! Well, that's the only thing I know right now because, I mean did you see him in that?" she says with a look of appreciation on her face

Aria shakes her head "Yeah, that was a good color on him." she says with an agreeing smile "So you definitely want to use an ivory color?"

"Yeah, I think...I don't know." she says exasperated roll of her eyes "I just can't figure it out and I feel bad for trying to focus on that, when I have a newborn...but Caleb NEVER leaves us, so I tried to take advantage of that while he was gone to get it started so he wouldn't see it...I am no closer now than I was..."

"Well..."Aria says as she slides the bag of fabrics over in front of her and digs through it and places them on the table "Lets take a look at these fabrics and see what we can come up with while she sleeps. Maybe two minds can think of something to get you started." She gets up from her spot and walks over to the kitchen, pulling two take out boxes from the bag and holds them up "Lunch?"

An hour later, they have eaten and worked stopping only momentarily to feed and change Kenzie before we went back to sleep in her pack in play nestled in the corner of the living room. They now sit on the couch with their palette of ivorys, champagnes, golds, and blush pinks. Hanna looks down at their work satisfied that they had managed to work it all around Hanna's idea for Calebs tuxedo color.

 _This will look so good together...so elegant. Not as attention grabbing as I had envisioned though...hmmm, maybe we can work on that though..._

"Well, think you have enough inspiration to tackle that dress yet?" asks Aria as she sits with her elbows resting on her knees and her hands clasped.

"Maybe.." Hanna says as she picks up her and scribbles some notes down in her notepad "Thank you for the help Aria. I really appreciate it. And thanks for coming, for always coming. You guys don't know what it means to Caleb and I to have people in our lives that care enough to put their lives on hold to help us."

"Hey, its no problem, really. We all want to do this...and apparently all of us working together, being a strong force against A is working, its been weeks and no texts or mishaps."

"I know, I just feel so bad that you guys always have to stop what you're doing and come over here because we are paranoid." she says as she looks down at her hands knotted together in her lap.

"You're not paranoid, you're a mother. A mother who was dealt a crap hand when you were younger and have dealt with this a lot longer than you ever should have. You're the only one of us right now that has someone that cannot defend themselves from A, to look after. We all came together when it was us being messed with, and we will all come together now...it's simple Han, it's family." she says with a reassuring smile.

Hanna reaches out and wraps her arms around her friend who mirrors her actions "Thank you Aria" she whispers. Hanna pulls back and wipes her eyes "Now, lets talk bridesmaids' dresses.." she says with a smile. Aria claps her hands together in excitement "Floor length, knee length, or the same dress in different lengths?" Hanna asks as she picks up her pen and a notepad to take down notes.

"Well, ultimately it is your decision however just keep in mind-" Hanna cuts her off

"Oh yeah, your short.." she says in a daze looking forward with her pen to her mouth. Immediately realizing what she had said Hanna turns to her friend, eyes wide with alarm "Oh my gosh, Aria I am so sorry. I did not mean to.."

"Hey, none taken...I have had some time to get used to the idea." she says with a smile and a wink.

Hanna's phone buzzes on the table, startling both the girls and making them jump. Hanna glances questioningly over at Aria who returns her look of concern. Hanna takes a deep breath and reaches forward and picks her phone up. She flips it over and lets out a deep breathe when she sees its a text from Caleb.

"It's just Caleb" she says as she slides her phone open to read a text, she can vaguely hear Aria sigh beside her.

 **Hey, sorry it's taking so long. Looks like she did get hacked on her server so I am still trying to figure it out. Everything okay there?**

She types out a reply quickly, hitting send

 **Hacked? Really? That's not good. Everything is fine here. Kenz is asleep and Aria and I are talking wedding.**

She sees the text bubbles pop up almost immediately

 **Yeah, it's not good. I'm trying to crack it but its taking longer than I expected. Talking wedding huh, got anything accomplished? Because I so cannot wait to marry you. :)**

His reply makes her smile and she quickly types back

 **Ditto. :)**

 **We are working on it as I type. Will you be home soon?**

He replies

 **Hopefully not too much longer. I will let you know when I am leaving. I miss my girls. I love you.**

She sits her phone back down on the table and turns to Aria who watches her carefully "There will be a time when the sound of your phone going off, doesn't make you want to crawl out of your own skin Hanna, I promise."

"Yeah, I know.." she whispers in reply as she looks down at her notes "So, dresses.." she says as she looks back up with a forced smile willing to change the subject. Aria nods her head in agreement.

Aria flips the pages in the bride magazines and they discuss the design of some of the designs that catches their eye as Hanna jots down notes about dress designs that she likes. They work like this until a knock on the door distracts them, and wakes Kenzie. Hanna gets up from her spot on the couch and walks towards the pack n play as Aria makes her way to the door. She picks up the baby and lightly bounces her and makes her way towards the foyer. When she gets close she can hear Aria and Emily talking near the door. She walks to the entrance way and looks towards them.

"Hey Em, you're just in time...guess who just woke up for a visit?" Hanna beams and Emily and Aria both return her smile.

Emily sits her gym bag on the foyer table and they all walk into the living room to sit on the couch. Aria takes Kenzie into her arms as Emily plops down beside her and they baby talk and play as Hanna watches them closely as she sits down on the other side of Aria.

Emily glances up and stops her baby talk "Han, why does it look like Saks exploded in your living room?"

"Oh! Hanna you have GOT to tell her!" Aria squeals with delight and gives her friend a big, bright smile and shakes her head up and down.

Hanna returns her smile and nods from side to side "I am trying and at the moment, failing to design my wedding dress..."

Aria whips her head around excitedly at Emily who stares at Hanna open mouthed at Hanna "What?! Han, that's amazing!"

"Yeah, you would think so right? But considering that I gave myself only 6 months to get a wedding planned and I am already 6 weeks in with no dress ideas...its a little stressful. Aria and I JUST got the color scheme down." she says as she pulls the fabrics out of the bag and places them back down on the table for Emily to see.

"Oh, but those will look so good together. Don't stress about it too much, you will do an amazing job with it. You always do" Emily says as she offers her a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, its just so hard to get motivated when all I want to do is play with this one." she as she baby talks to Kenzie and tickles her belly.

"I feel ya. I wouldn't get a thing done if I had one of these in my house." Aria says with a smile.

Three phones buzz at the same time, startling all the girls. They all glance at each other.

"Well, I know this one isn't Caleb" Hanna says in dread reaching for her phone on the table as Emily pulls hers out of her back pocket.

"Group text. We really gotta quit doing that. It's Spence. She wants to know what we are doing. Want me to tell her to swing by? Maybe we can all help you.." Emily asks.

"Yeah, tell her to swing on by. You guys don't have to help me, I will get it handled. We can just hang out and love on this one." she says as she tickles Kenzie belly again, making her smile.

A few hours later once Spencer has joined them, they sit around the table drinking wine and discussing wedding details after all.

"So, wedding at the church and then?" Spencer asks as she takes a sip of her wine and sits her glass back down on the table.

"Yeah. Ceremony at the church, Ted agreed to do the service and then we will head to the hotel for the reception and mom secured the banquet room for us there and the traveling guests will be able to stay there too." Hanna says as she nods her head up and down.

"And your dad?" Aria asks slowly, as if to test the question.

 _Keep it together Hanna..._

Hanna lifts her glass to her lips and takes a sip before answering "My dad will not be there..." she says as she fixes her eyes on her lap to avoid the sympathetic smiles

Her mind drifts back to that disastrous phone call when she had with her dad. She had asked him to clear his calendar for the date they had selected for their wedding. She sat in the rocking chair in the nursery, where she had been folding and putting away some of Kenzie's clothes while Caleb had her downstairs eating.

"Hanna, that is the same day as Kate's graduation...I won't be able to make it. Can you change the date?." he said with a sigh

"Are you serious right now? No! Dad, isn't Kate going to grad school or law school or something?"

"Yes Hanna, she is going to graduate school..."

"Then she will have another graduation, I will not get married again.."

"I know honey, but Isabelle will be upset if I don't get to make it to her graduation...Hanna, you have to understand she's my wife..."

"And I'm your daughter..your ACTUAL daughter" she huffed fighting back her unwelcome tears "You know what, never mind. Don't worry about it."

"Hanna, don't be like that."

"Like what?" she snapped into her phone "Don't be hurt that my own father won't even come to my wedding...won't walk me down the aisle..? Look, you just worry about your perfect new life with your perfect new wife and step daughter. Don't be bothered with your own flesh and blood daughter, god knows you never have been before." she said with a sigh "You know, Caleb has been a father for 2.5 seconds, and right now, in this very second - I am so glad that my daughter will NEVER have to have this conversation with him. He will never break her heart, you should really take some notes." she said as she angrily hung up the phone.

"What?!" they say in unison and exchange glances with each other, pulling her out of thoughts.

"Hanna, who will walk you down the aisle?" Emily says as she looks up from the baby in her arms.

"My mom..." she says with a shrug "She's been there for everything...my whole life...only seems right."

"So, did you not invite him or he just isn't coming?" Aria asks quietly

Hanna clears her throat and wipes the hair from her face "Oh, I asked him...I don't know why I did though, he of course chose the step monster and her precious Kate...it's her graduation."

"Hanna, I am so sorry." Aria says sympathetically

Hanna stands from her spot on the couch and grabs her wine glass which she has filled with water and walks towards the kitchen "Don't be. I'm used to it." she says shortly "More wine?" she says as she picks up the bottle from the counter and holds it up

 _Damn. I wish I could have some right about now.._

"Hanna, you're drinking water..?" Spencer deadpans

"Yes, I know.." she rolls her eyes "But you guys aren't. Want refills?" she asks as she walks back into the living room. The girls all look questioningly at each other. "What?!" Hanna snaps looking at them "I just don't see what the big deal is. He doesn't want to come, I don't want him to. My mom has always been my rock so she should be the one that gets to stand by me."

"Han, we're not saying anything bad towards you at all. This is all on him. He should be there...but you are totally right, your mom should have the honor of giving you away." Spencer says as she notices the annoyance in Hanna's voice of where this conversation is going, she changes subjects "SO back to the wedding..."

They venture back into small tala and Hanna starts to relax a little more

 _Oh thank God for friends that know when the dam is about to break..._


	18. Chapter 18

It is just starting to get dark when Caleb returns back home. As he pulls into the driveway the cars parked on the curb in the street indicate that the girls are all still here and it makes the small tinge of panic deep in his chest subside.

 _Oh good, they aren't by themselves..._

He gets out of the car and walks to the front door and quietly opens it, a habit they have gotten into since having a newborn in the house. Shutting it back equally as quiet, he is greeted by the sounds of laughter in the living room. He walks to the entrance to the room but stand just out of sight and peeks in. Hanna and Aria sit on opposite ends of the couch and Emily sits in the floor across from them. Spencer sits in the chair playing with Kenzie, holding her up and making noises at the baby that make her smile a big toothless smile at the sound.

The girls erupt in laughter and it makes him smile to himself in the hallway. Then he notices Hanna laugh, it's not her genuine infectious laugh, it's distant and he recognizes it instantly and it makes his smile fade.

 _Oh no, what's happened?_

"So Han, about this dress color.." Spencer starts

Caleb clears his throat making his presence known "I'm home." he calls out

They all hush and shush. "One second!" Hanna calls out in panic.

He can hear the ruffling of papers and the moving of all the feet in the living room, obviously in attempt to help Hanna hide all the sensitive wedding material he has been forbidden to see. They all whisper in hushed tones and it makes him laugh. Finally he hears the zipper of wedding bag Hanna has been guarding in the nursery close and she announces "Okay, you're good.".

Caleb rounds the corner and laughs at the girls who are all gathered around the far end of the table, guarding the bag.. "Hey." he says as he makes his way over. He leans down and kisses Hanna's head and tickles Kenzie's belly as she lays in Spencer's arms. "You girls get some stuff squared away?" he asks with a smile.

"Uh yeah, and you almost spoiled the surprise. How are things at The Radley?" Hanna says with a tight smile

 _Oh what's wrong?_

"Good. Um, I got it under control. It wasn't as bad as I thought once I could finally get in." he says as he runs his hands up and down her arms. "Hey Aria, thanks for coming over on such short notice." he says as he turns his attention to her

"Not a problem."

Kenzie's cries interrupt their conversation and Spencer tries to calm her unsuccessfully. Hanna reaches over and grabs her from Spencer "Oh. She needs changing. I will be right back." she says as she turns and walks out of the living room and up the stairs to the nursery.

Once she has left their line of sight Caleb turns back to the girls "Okay. What's going on? She's upset about something...did something happen?"

"You mean she hasn't said anything to you about her dad?" Emily asks

"No. What about him?" he asks confused

The girls all exchange a look with each other before Aria turns back to Caleb "She said he told her he wasn't coming to the wedding."

"What?!" he asks in disbelief

"Yeah and she's acting like she's okay with it, but its eating at her." Emily chimes in

 _Of course she is, my strong girl. Dammit Tom..._

"She's brushing it off like it isn't bothering her but she's hurt."

Caleb sighs and runs his hands through his hair "Typical Hanna. Okay, I will talk to her. She hasn't mentioned anything to me about it."

"Well, had I not asked her about it she probably wouldn't have mentioned it to us either." Aria says with a shrug

Caleb looks back towards the stairs "I will find out. Thanks for the heads up guys. She really closes herself off when she's upset."

"Yeah, it's how she copes...we get it. We will also head on out and let you guys have some time. Will you tell her that we will be by tomorrow?" Emily asks as she picks up her gym bag from the floor.

"Of course. Thanks. For coming by, and for helping her."

He sees the girls out through the foyer and stands on the front stoop until they are all safely in their cars. He closes the door and locks it behind him before turning and heading upstairs. He walks down the hallway past their bedroom door to the nursery and peaks inside. Hanna stands with her back to the door looking down into the crib at Kenzie. He lightly knocks on the door and it makes her jump. Quickly she wipes her cheeks before looking over her shoulder at him as he walks towards them.

"What ya thinkin bout?" he says as he walks up behind her and wraps his arms through hers that rest on the crib, wrapping his around her waist and kisses the back of her head.

"You."

"What about me?"

"Just about how lucky Kenz and I are to have a man like you in our lives."

"What's wrong babe?"

Her shoulders slump "They told you, didn't they?" she says as she never takes her eyes off the crib

He sits his chin on her shoulder and sighs "Yeah, they did. How come you didn't tell me?"

"Because it's really not a big deal...they just ask too many questions." she shakes her head

"It's not really a big deal is Hanna Marin code for it really is a big deal, and you're either too hard headed to talk about it, or you are hurt and don't want anyone to know. Spill."

She huffs, her breathe shaky "I called dad to tell him we had set a date and he told me that it was the same day as Kate's graduation and he wouldn't be able to make it. He even asked me to change the date" she says as she rolls her eyes and turns in his arms to face him "And its not a big deal because I want my mom to give me away anyway. And he always chooses Kate over me so it's expected. I don't know why I even thought he would come..." she trails off as her bottom lip begins to tremble

"Hanna.."

She lets out sob and throws her hand over her mouth as if to keep them tears at bay, but they come anyway. She throws both hands up to her face and tucks her head into his chest as large tears fill her eyes as her self control breaks "Why doesn't he love me Caleb?" she says in between sobs "Why...Why can't he ever just choose me? Why am I not good enough?"

"He loves you Han, he just has his priorities mixed up is all." he says as she wraps his arms tighter around her, holding her up.

"Well he's had them mixed up for a while now then." she says as she pulls back and wipes her eyes with her sleeves "He just dumped me and mom to pretty much fend for ourselves and then shows back up with this perfect new family, he only came around when I was in trouble...which was a lot more than he ever really knew so technically he only came around when he was TOLD I was in trouble. He even told me TO MY FACE that he couldn't help me anymore with school because he was sending KATE to school." she says this time wiping her nose with her hand. "

"And then you have to come and be my knight in shining armor and take a job in New York to help me do what I have always wanted. And now we have the perfect little girl that totally has you wrapped around her little chubby fingers and I know that I don't even have to worry about her ever having to wonder if you love her or not. I am so grateful for that, because I know it would break my mom's heart if she knew how I feel in this ever second. Not to mention she would be pissed if she knew that he said he wouldn't be there for our wedding day." she finally stops and rolls her eyes as she takes a breath. "I just...deep down I want him to be there because he's my father. Emily would give anything to have her father at her wedding, and if he were still around, he would have moved mountains to be there for her. I've seen him fly in just to take her to father-daughter dances when we were in high school. My dad is just up the road, and he won't even make an attempt to come. It just...hurts my heart. And I've always been able to brush it off, but I think now that I see you with Kenz, it just hits harder because I see first hand what a father daughter relationship is supposed to look like."

She straightens herself back up and wipes her face again "But, it's really not a big deal. He doesn't want to come and that's fine. My mom will be more than happy to give me away and shes the one that really deserves to be the one that does it. I'm just making a bigger deal out of it then I should be, you know...post pregnancy hormones and all" she says with a forced laugh

 _Anddddd she's done talking about it.._

He thinks as he watches as her carefully noticing her mood changes "You're wrong. You have every right to be upset. Your dad should be there...it's gonna be his loss if he doesn't get to see how beautiful of a bride you will be." he says as he rubs her arms "But I also think you're right, your mom should be the one that gives you away."

She shakes her head and folds herself back into his arms and they stand in silence for several minutes before she speaks

"On the upside of this shitty day, I think I finally know what I want to do about my dress." she says quietly

"You do? You want me to give you some time to sketch it out tonight? I can disappear for a little while if you need me too.."

She pulls back and looks up at him "Would you mind? I just want to get it somewhat down on paper before I lose it in my head."

"No, not at all. I will go get a shower and cook us some dinner and come get you and Kenz when it's done. or I can come get her after my shower and take her with me..? How will an hour or so do?"

"That would be perfect. She's fine, I'm gonna sit in here for a little while. Hide out and see what I can get down." she says with a smile as he kisses her forehead "Thank you."

"For what?" he asks his lips resting on her forehead

"Everything. You save me every time."

He smiles at her and bends down to give her a quick kiss "I love you."

"I love you too sweet boy. Now, get outta here so I can get to work!" she calls as she playfully pushes him towards the door.

He throws his hands up as in defense and walks backwards to the door, turning when he reaches the door and walks down the hallway to their bedroom door. He shuts it behind him and makes his way into the adjoining bathroom and shuts that door. Reaching in he turns the shower on and starts to empty his pocket, pulling out his wallet and keys before finding his cellphone. He slides it open and scans the screen before hitting the call button once he has reached his contact.

"Hello?" the familiar voice rings into his ear

"Hi Mr. Marin, hey it's Caleb. Listen, sorry for calling but um...we need to talk."


	19. Chapter 19

"Hello?" the familiar voice rings into his ear

"Hi Mr. Marin, hey it's Caleb. Listen, sorry for calling but um...we need to talk."

"Caleb…is everything okay? Is something wrong with Hanna or MaKenzie?"

"Yeah, yeah everything is fine with Hanna and Kenzie. I, uh...I was just calling about the wedding. I was just talking to Hanna and she said that you weren't going to come."

"Uh yeah I uh I told her it was the same night as my step daughter's graduation. I wish I could make it but my wife would be livid if I missed out on Kate's graduation."

"Yeah. What about your daughter?" he can't hide the irritation in his voice

"Excuse me?" Tom replies offended

"What about Hanna? Did you happen to think about her and how she will feel about you missing out on our wedding?" he doesn't wait for a reply "Because I will tell you how she feels, She is hurt. She feels like she is not good enough for you. She feels like you don't love her. Wanna know how or why I know that? Because I just held her while she sobbed saying that she wishes for once you would choose her over Kate"

"Well this is a first. She didn't seem too upset when I talked to her about it. She was pissed, but she wasn't hurt."

"God that just shows how well you know your own daughter; she hides behind pissed when she's upset. It the way she keeps her heart from being broken. You should really pay more attention to her next time…because I am sure there will be a next time with you, as much as I would love to shelter her from it."

"I beg your pardon I appreciate you looking out for my daughter and the emotional state of her heart…but you are way out of line. Look, you are new to this whole managing a family, much less two. It's hard to make everybody happy. Once you're married you will understand the phrase 'Happy wife, happy life'. I am doing what is best for my family, and that is Kate's graduation. Plus, why do you even care whether I make it or not you didn't even ask for my permission to marry her."

Caleb's mouth falls open and his blood pressure shoots through the roof "No, I beg your pardon, but it is my responsibility to look out for the emotional state of her heart. She is my fiancé- soon to be wife and the mother of my child. I may not be married YET but I am a father. With that said, I may not be a father as long as you have but I can guarantee you that I would NEVER put something over my daughter. I want you there for her because not but 10 minutes ago she was bawling her eyes out because she wants you there and you've chosen your second family over her. And, just for your information I didn't ask you for your permission to marry Hanna, because you have never been around. You don't know anything about me and obviously you don't know much about Hanna either so I asked Ashley and she gave me her blessing."

He takes a deep breathe to lower his temper "Look, I just wanted to have a talk with you man to man because quite frankly I love your daughter. I love her and I would do anything for her. I have told you that before and I think in a roundabout way, you told me to leave. And I love Kenzie so much. And I just want her to have the wedding she's always dreamed of, and no matter what she says and no matter what front she puts up, she has always wanted her father there to walk her down the aisle so you do what you have to but I just wanted to give you a little insight into how she really feels It's a really shitty feeling, trust me. Now that you know the reality of this situation please try to just take her feelings consideration when you make your plans for that day because there is nothing that I can do to fix this for her as much as I want to, and she deserves better. Have a good night sir."

He slams his finger down on the end button on his cellphone and throws it onto the bathroom counter and stands with his hands on either side of the sink staring at his reflection.

 _God, you probably shouldn't have done that. Shouldn't have stuck your nose in family business…but Hanna deserves better so take your silent treatment with pride knowing you stood up for your girl._

He thinks as he pulls his shirt over his head, tossing it into the hamper and climbs into the shower.

Hanna sits in the nursery with her sketches in hand. In an hour she has managed to sketch out her wedding dress completely. She holds it out in front of her as a smile of satisfaction spreads across her face.

 _Now, that's more like it Elegant, beautiful and eye catching…not bad Marin._

She thinks as she stares at the paper in her hand. She has sketched out mermaid style dress with a fitted bodice and a sweetheart neckline. The bodice is a light blush pink with a heavy lace overlay in ivory that comes up over the neckline and drapes over the shoulders and around to a completely lace back. The blush color is barely noticeable under the ivory lace overlay until it flares at the knee where the scalloped lace meets the blush color material and forms small tiered ruffles causing just the ends of to poke out showing off the pink. It has a small train that will drag behind her with the same tiered ruffles that will form right the bustle would be for the reception. She pairs it with a three strand pearl necklace in blush pink, and a birdcage veil with a rose gold brooch comb.

 _This…this is really good…REALLY good. Fingers cross that Estelle likes it_

She thinks as she sits the paper down on the floor of the nursery and digs through the wedding bag for the material swatches they had picked out earlier. She lays the lace over the light blush material and pulls out her cellphone and snaps a picture of both and pulls up her text messages finding Estelle's number she attaches the pictures and types out a quick message

 **Hey Estelle, I have this sketched out as what I am thinking about for my dress. Let me know what you think. I overlaid the two fabrics so you could get a better idea of what I was leaning towards. I haven't started on the bridesmaids dresses yet, but I would like to do those too, if at all possible. I can't wait to hear your thoughts about it. Thanks again for the opportunity.**

She hits send and smiles to herself as she clutches her phone to her chest with glee. She gets up from the rocking chair and walks over to the crib and peaks over the railing at Kenzie. "Hey baby girl, how about we go have dinner with daddy?" she says as she picks her up and makes her way out of the nursery. She walks down the stairs and turns to walk into the kitchen and stops in the doorway.

Caleb stands in the kitchen and pulls the dish out of the oven and turns to put it on the stovetop at the kitchen island. He looks up and smiles at her "Hey. You get it down?" he says with a smile

"Uh, yeah. I think so. Just got to wait to hear back from Estelle before it's set in stone." she explains as she makes her way over the pack & play and puts Kenzie back down.

"So, can I ask what I am wearing? Or is that a secret too" he says with a grin as he walks over to the couch where she sits and leans over the back of it beside her.

"You are wearing a tux…" she says returning his grin "An ivory one, like from prom…because my baby looked hot in that suit."

They share a laugh "Hot huh?" he leans down and gives her a kiss "Speaking of hot, that is what dinner is and we should eat it before it gets cold." He says as she kisses her again and stands to walk towards the kitchen again.

"What are we having?"

"Your favorite…pasta." He says as he pulls plates down from the cabinet

After they have eaten they both sit on the couch facing each other with Kenzie laying in between them on the middle cushion. She giggles at them as they tickle her belly and make noises at her, making them both laugh as well.

Hanna's phone buzzes on the table, stopping both of them as they look to each other. She reaches to the table and picks it up as she flips it over she notices the number and she sits straight up in panic.

"Hanna, what is it?" Caleb asks with concern in his voice

She looks up at him blankly and back down at her phone "It's Estelle…Hanna, please call me regarding the dress design. I would really like to talk with you about it. Thanks, Estelle." she reads the text aloud to him before looking back in his direction, eyes wide.

"Hanna, that's great. Why are you freaking out?"

"Because what if she doesn't like it? What if she tells me that it is crap and that I need to find something else to do? What if she sees it and she doesn't want to work with me on it?"

Caleb laughs "First, calm down she just wants to talk to you about it. Don't freak out until you call her and hear what she has to say. I am sure that whatever you have come up with is great. You are really good at what you do. Just call her." he nods his head and smiles at her.

She returns his smile and leans over to kiss him as she grabs her phone and heads back upstairs to the nursery for her notes. She shuts the door behind her and spreads everything out on the floor and sits down in the middle. She takes a deep breath and hits the call button, putting the phone to her ear as her heart beats nearly out of her chest.

RINGGGGGGGGGG

"Hanna darling!"

"Hi Estelle. I see you got my texts."

"Yes, yes I did and I wanted to talk to you about them. Hanna these sketches are…"

 _Here goes nothing. My future career in one phone call ladies and gentlemen..._

She thinks as she swallows and tries to quiet her heartbeat in her ears

"They are…really lovely."

She exhales

"But?"

"No buts Hanna, they are really good. Your attention to detail is amazing. I love the lines and the fabrics you've chosen. The colors are unique and different…refreshing. It's good. It's REALLY good."

"Seriously? Like you really think so?" she practically squeals with delight

"Yes dear. It's really good. I always knew you had an eye for the business, but these are really exquisite. You mentioned bridesmaids' dresses in your text…what did you have in mind for those?"

"Well I haven't sketched them out yet but I have four and I was thinking the same blush color with a lighter lace in different lengths…maybe some beading?" 

"Okay, I tell you what. Why don't you sketch them out and shoot me some pictures so I can get a better feel for it. I have some down time next week so I can come and visit you and we can get started on it."

Hanna really squeals this time, "Estelle, you cannot be serious."

"Hanna, I am serious. You are really good. Keep this up and you'll be outshining me in this business."

"I doubt that."

"I don't. Look, just take my word for it and I will be down there next week to get started. Sketch the other dresses out and send them to me. I really can't wait to see what else you can come up with."

"Estelle, I really can't thank you enough for what you're doing for me."

"No need to thank me dear, thank your god given talent. Look, I got to run but what's the name of the hotel there? I will go ahead and make my reservation."

"I tell you what, my mom actually owns that hotel so I will get that taken care of for you and I will text you the details when I send over those sketches."

"You dear, are too sweet to me. Ciao Hanna."

The line goes silent and Hanna pulls the phone away from her ear and stares at it.

 _OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD._

She jumps up from the floor and slings the nursery door open and practically runs down the stairs. When she reaches the living room she looks at Caleb he sits on the couch with his feet propped up on the table, he holds Kenzie in his arms and a bottle in his hand. He looks up when she walks into the room and flashes her a smile.

"Well? What's the verdict?" he asks

"Caleb, she loved it. She told me the sketch out the girls' dresses and send her the pictures. She is coming here NEXT WEEK to get started!" she exclaims as she walks to him and sits down on the couch facing him. His smile now mirrors hers, toothy and large, excited.

"See. I knew she would. I told you Han, you're good. I mean I don't know much about fashion, but I've seen your stuff …you're really good at what you do."

"She said AND I quote if I keep doing what I am doing I will outshine…yes, outshine HER. Like that would ever happen, but it was a nice thing for her to say. Oh my god. I have got to get started. I have four more dresses to design before next week!" she says as she throws her hands up to her head and runs them through her hair.

"Well get to work! I got Kenz if you want to board up in the nursery for a little while longer and get some stuff down."

"Are you sure? I feel so bad neglecting my responsibilities…and you've been gone most all day. I should really spend some time with you."

"I'll wait up…so you can get some of it done and we can spend some time together afterwards."

"Thank you." She squeals and leans over to give him a kiss before jumping up off the couch and heading towards the stairs.

She stops before she reaches the foyer as a sick feeling rises in her mind.

 _New York. You can't start blowing him off for this again…remember what happened last time?_

She turns around and watches him as he holds Kenzie. She's spit some of her formula out and he pulls the burp cloth off his shoulder and wipes the excess off of her face. Hanna smiles to herself as she walks back towards the couch and sits down beside him. She bends her legs under her and lays her head on his shoulder.

He looks over at her questioningly before he speaks "Han..."

"I'm not going to put it before you again, before us…I will get to it when I have down time, right now I need to spend time with you and Kenz."

"Hey, I don't feel like you are putting it before us. You have a short amount of time to get it done, so I understand."

"And I will get it done. Probably at my 2 AM feeding and diaper change, it's hard for me to get back to sleep anyway. Look, this…business ruined us the last time. I refuse to let it happen again. Not now, we've worked so hard to get back to us and now Kenz. This, us…it means more to me than a couple of sketches. I will get it done but right now I just want to spend time with my family."

They stare into each other's eyes for a long time before he leans over and kisses the tip of her nose. "I love you, you know that."

"Yeah, I know." She says with a smile "And I love you." She kisses him then looks down "AND I love you pretty girl" she says as she tickles Kenzie's belly.

 _This…this is 100xs better than any fashion career move…_


	20. Chapter 20

Caleb stirs in bed, rolling over to Hanna's side he reached out and its empty. He lifts his head and looks around the room, empty. Squinting his eyes he glances at the clock on her night stand, it reads 2:47 AM, he lays his head back down on the pillow and yawns.

 _Kenzie must've woken up. Crap! I didn't hear her, now Hanna will never get back to sleep_

He thinks as he sits up and throws his legs over the side of the bed, putting his head on the floor. He stretches his back and rubs his eyes. He always tried to get up with Hanna during her early morning feedings, because he knew she had a hard time getting back to sleep. His mind drifts back to one of the first nights after they had come home from the hospital.

He had slept through the wake up call and when he woke Hanna was not in the bedroom. He went down to the nursery, Hanna and Kenzie weren't in there either. He ventured downstairs and found them in the living room. Hanna on the couch holding Kenzie in her arms as she bawled uncontrollably. He panicked and raced over to the couch asking her what was wrong. She simply pointed at the TV with the hand that held a wad of toilet paper and burst into sobs. He turned his head and noticed the movie on the screen. She was watching The Notebook and sobbing, he just turned back to her and laughed, and shook his head.

"Baby, why are you watching this it it makes you cry?"

"Because. If. You're. A. Bird. I'm. A. Birddddddddddddd." she said in between sobs crying out loudly at the end of her sentence and laying her head on his shoulder. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and sat back up and looked at him "We're like Noah and Allie you know."

Caleb put his elbow on his knee and brought his hand to his chin, "We are, are we?" he asked as he tried hard not to laugh at her seriousness.

She excitedly shook her head with tears on her cheeks "Yeah, she left and then they found their way back to one another and lived happily ever after...like us." she said with a smile. Her smile then faded and she burst into sobs again, "Would you come read our love story to me everyday and try to make me remember you if I got Alzheimer's like Noah does to Allie? Would you still love me if I couldn't remember you?"

Caleb laughed and pulled them into his arms, "Yes baby. I would still love you if you couldn't remember me..." he kissed her forehead and she sobbed into his chest "Why such deep thoughts so early in the morning?" he asked as he rubbed her back.

She composed herself as she said "I couldn't sleep after I got up so I made some coffee and started watching this movie. Now I can't stop crying. I thought about us and all we have been through and wonder what the rest of our lives will be like." she said as her lip started to tremble and she cried again "I just want you to love me always...like Noah loves Allie."

He grinned, and pulled her close to him again "I love and will love you more than Noah loves Allie. I will love you like Caleb loves Hanna and that is much more than any movie could capture." he kissed her forehead again

"You promise?"

He laughed again "Yes, I promise... And out of love I am going to say that it's time to lay off the coffee. How many cups have you had?" he asked as he nodded to the empty coffee cup on the table.

She yawned "Like 4 or so...it is a long movie."

It had taken him 2 more hours of crying and her rambling before he could finally get her to sleep again. From that night on, he decided he would try to get up with her early in the mornings so that she wouldn't sit up by herself and wonder what they would do if she got some brain disease that made her not remember him. Or so that she wouldn't drop something heavy on her head and knock herself out cold because one night, she had decided that she was going to clean out the closet and almost pulled a box full of her shoes on her head. She kept herself busy when she got up, and he knew that was so that she would be awake in case A decided to rear its ugly head with our daughter again.

He yawns, this time registering the faint sound of singing in the room; he glances around looking for the sound. His eyes fall on the baby monitor placed on his night stand and he reaches for it, turning the volume up. He places the monitor to his ear and he can hear Hanna singing in the nursery

 _She must be working on the dresses...she always sings when she works on sketches_

He thinks as he holds the speaker back up to his ear and listens to her for a minute, smiling to himself as he hears her singing very excitedly but very off tune.

"Because you know, I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no treble. I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no treble"

She sings and it makes him laugh as she stands and puts the monitor back on the table and makes his way towards the door. He walks to the nursery door and listens as she starts to sing what he can tell is "Boom Clap" out loud, noting that there isn't any music playing, he figured she must have her ear buds in. He quietly opens the door and looks inside. Kenzie is fast asleep in her crib and Hanna has her back to the door and one ear bud in her ear, the other hanging down her back, so she could hear Kenzie's cries. She sits in the floor in a circle of crumpled balls of paper, over her shoulder he can see that her sketch pad in her hand as she swings and sways dancing to the music in her ears.

 _God, I miss watching her do this. She is always so beautiful when she is passionate about and consumed in her work. I mean, she is always beautiful but man, she really comes alive when she's sketching. Design...the business was never the problem with us. Time was; the time we spent apart and all the canceled plans were. I've got to make sure she knows that._

He props himself up in the doorway, crossing his arms and watches her for just a minute. She holds up a piece of paper out from her that has a sketched pink dress on it and examines it carefully, tilting her head to one side and then lays it down on the floor. She finds a pink fabric that is mixed among the paper balls and lays it down beside her on the floor next to the piece of paper. She grabs her phone and turns to take a picture and is startled when she finally notices him in the doorway. She yanks the earbud out of her ear and shuffles to cover up the paper as she looks up at him.

"CALEB! You know you can't see this!" she exclaims as she stands and puts everything back in the forbidden bag.

"I was just enjoying the view. Plus, you aren't working on your dress, you are working on the girls dresses, and no offense to them but I really don't care what their dresses look like."

She straightened up and slings the hair out of her face, "Hey...those girls will be wearing a Hanna Marin original, so you better care." she says with a grin as she points at him.

He uncrosses his arms and walks over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist "Now, that I care about...but them being a surprise...nahh." he says with a grin and a shrug of his shoulders "I just like watching you work...always have"

Hanna cranes her neck up to look at him "Watch me work? You've watched me before?"

"Yeah, I used to watch you in the apartment in New York all the time...it was probably my favorite past time." he says with a chuckle.

"How come you've never told me this before now?"

"I don't know. I didn't know if you would feel weird that I was watching or something. I didn't want to sound like a creeper. Then you blamed our split on your work and you quit doing it. I'm glad to see you back at it though. There is a whole different fire in your eyes when you're in the zone, it's nice to see." he smiles and leans down to kiss her "Are you almost finished with the dresses?"

"Uh, yeah. I actually just finished Ali's and that was the last one I had left so I was taking the pictures to send to Estelle and I will be done." she says with pride.

"How long have you been working on them?"

Hanna yawns, "What time is it? Not long."

"Like 3.."

"I got up with her around midnight, so just a couple hours...but I went ahead and did Kenzie's dress while I was working." she says with a smile "She's gonna be so cute, Caleb! Her dress is a big ball of tulle and a HUGE bow for her hair. You're totally gonna hate it." she says with a laugh as she clasps her hands in front of her face to cover her smile.

"So, you're free to come back to bed then? I woke up and you weren't there and I don't need you running around the house thinking up scenarios involving sad movie plots."

"That was one time!" she says with a playful laugh as she smacks him on his arms "But yes, I gotta run down to your office first. I'm going to scan these and email them then I will be done and will come back to bed."

"Okay," he says as he walks towards the door and just as he reaches it he turns around to her "By the way, maybe it's best you stick to fashion...because you sing as good as you dance..." he says with a playful smile. She jumps at him to smack his arms and he runs out of the room and down the hall to their bedroom.

Hanna turns back to the crib and picks Kenzie up "Did you hear that baby girl? Daddy doesn't think momma can sing." Kenzie coos in response "I know it. Tell him momma can sing!" Hanna says to her. She picks up her things and makes her way downstairs to the office to scan copies of everything. After she was finished, she takes the baby back upstairs and placed her in the bed in their room. Crawling in the bed next to Caleb, she snuggled up behind him, wrapping her arms around his chest and drifts off to sleep.

When she wakes, she is alone. She looks over to the bassinet, empty. She stretches and then glances at the clock, 7:45 AM. She gets up out of the bed and walks down the stairs as she enters the foyer she can hear Caleb banging around in the kitchen. As she enters the room she sees Kenzie in the floor on her mat playing and Caleb is at the stove cooking breakfast.

"Bout time you woke up sleepy head. We've been waiting on you for breakfast." he says as he holds up a plate and sits it down on the breakfast bar "You better hurry, we have to get going."

"Going? Where are we going?" she says with a full mouth

"Did you forget that today is Saturday..?" she looks at him confused "Saturday and we invited everyone over today?"

Her eyes grow wide as she remembers "Crap! Yes. I completely forgot! I have got to go to the grocery store."

"Just calm down, we will go as soon as you eat and get ready. I've already eaten so I will take Kenz upstairs and get her ready. Take your time." He says with a smile as he kisses her head walks to the baby in the floor "Com'on princess let's get you ready." He says as he picks her up and turns to walk up the stairs.

 _"Well it's a good thing you scooped him up. They don't make them like that anymore." Oh mom, you always do know everything._

She thinks as she smiles and eats her breakfast.

Two hours later is has eaten, showered and packing up the car throwing the diaper bag and her purse in the back seat along with her wedding bag. Caleb walks out with the car seat and Kenzie is tucked inside and puts it in the base in the backseat.

"You get the list?" he asks as he opens up the driver side door of his Jeep and climbs inside.

She looks around, "No…crap." she says as she pulls papers out of her purse "No wait..." she reaches in the backseat and unzips the wedding bag and pulls out her notebook "Yes!" she pulls out of the notebook and holds it up in victory "Yes, got it!"

He laughs as he puts the car in reversed and backs out of the driveway "And you say I forget things."

They make it in and out of the grocery store without any issues, and only one crying fit from Kenzie. As they arrive back home Caleb unloads the car while Hanna puts the groceries away and Kenzie lays in the floor on her mat. Hanna's phone buzzes on the bar and she stops to pick it up. It's a group text from Allison

 **Me and Em will be on our way soon. Do we need to bring anything?**

Then Aria replies

 **Ezra and I too, need anything from us?**

Before she can reply it buzzes again in her hand from Spencer

 **Ditto. Toby and I too, just let us know!**

She smiles just as Caleb walks into the kitchen with more bags "I'm guessing a group text. What are they saying?" he asks as he sits the bags down on the counter and leans over her shoulder to read her screen.

"Just want to know what they need to bring." She says as she starts to type out the reply

 **Nothing. Nobody bring anything! Just come prepared to get measured up the wedding.**

She hits send and lays her phone back down on the counter top as they unload.

A few hours later as she is putting the finishing touches on the salad the doorbell rings and she yells "Come in!" in the direction of the front door. Toby and Spencer walk in carrying a bottle of wine. "Hey guys!" she calls from the bar "I told you not to bring anything!"

"I know, but it just didn't feel right not to." Spencer says as she holds it up with a smile.

"Well we appreciate it, really." She says as she smiles at Toby who walks towards her and kisses her cheek "Hey Toby. Caleb is outside at the grill."

"Hi Han, thanks for the invite." He says as he walks from her and towards the patio doors leading out to where Caleb stands at the grill.

"Where's the cutie?" Spencer asks excitedly

"She's over in the pack n play. Go on over and keep her company. I am almost done in here."

The door opens again and she hears Emily call out from the foyer "Knock Knock"

"Hey Em, in here." Hanna calls as she opens up the refrigerator and puts the salad bowl in and shuts the door as Ali and Emily walk into the room.

"Han, we brought pie…Where do you want it?" Alison asks

She looks at her three friends standing all in the living room "Wha-" she sighs "Thank you guys, but you really didn't have to bring anything," She reaches out and takes the pie from Alison and sits it down in the center of the kitchen table.

The door opens again and Aria and Ezra walk in "Hi Han" she calls out

"Beers." Ezra says as he holds up two six packs of beer.

Hanna rolls her eyes "Thanks, you can stick them in the fridge. Boys are out back."

Ezra opens the refrigerator and puts the beers in the fridge, pulling out three and heading to the back patio doors to join Toby and Caleb.

Once the patio door shuts, Hanna sighs and walks into the living room where all the girls sit around and play with Kenzie. "You guys really didn't have to bring anything. We wanted to do dinner tonight here as a thank you for everything you all have done since we've been home." They all look at her and offer up a smile but stay silent "So, I got all the dresses finished."

"What? Can we see them?" Aria asks practically bouncing up and down where she sits.

"Uh, yeah..let me go get the tablet from the office." She says as she stands and walks into the office. She pulls up her email, opening up the attachments and flips through them.

 _God, I hope they like them_

She walks back into the living room and holds the tablet up "Here they are ladies! I tried to design each of you one that I thought would match your own styles." she exclaims and she forces a nervous smile and passes the tablet to them. Aria reaches out and takes it from her.

"Oh my gosh Hanna. Please tell me this is mine." She says as she flips the tablet around.

The screen displays a knee length, strapless dress with a lace top and a full tulle skirt, all in a light blush pink.

"Uh, yeah. It is actually. Do you like it?"

"Hanna, it's gorgeous. You know me well" she says with a smile as she scrolls to the next one "Oh this is so pretty too!"

She says as she flips the screen back around to show a floor length chiffon and lace dress that ties around the neck, almost a turtleneck style but it has a deep cut V opening in the front and in back..

"Looks like Spence" Emily says pointedly

"It DOES look like Spence" Spencer says as she snatches the tablet from Aria to get a closer look "Is this mine? Because I really, REALLY love it."

"Uh huh." she sighs "It is."

She smiles back at Hanna and hands the computer back to Aria and she flips to another one and lifts her eyebrows unaware of who it might belong to. It is a floor length chiffon dress with a lace top and ¾ length full lace sleeves, the back hangs low in a cowl neck.

"Oh I really love that one!" Emily calls out as she takes a drink of her wine, sitting her glass back on the table.

"Good, because it's yours." Hanna says with a smile and wink to Emily.

"Well, we all know how the next one belongs to." Aria says before she flips to the next one and Kenzie's dress of tulle pops up onto the screen. It is ivory like Hanna and Caleb's but it has a big blush pink bow to go on her head..

"Uh Han, I think mine is gonna be a little too small.." Alison calls out and they all share a laugh

Aria swipes again and Ali's dress pops up on the screen. It's an off the shoulders tea length dress, full lace with a small tulle poof in the bottom layers.

All the dresses are paired with a two strand pearl necklace in ivory with a blush pink cameo in the front.

"Oh, I really love that!" Alison calls "I had no idea you were so good at this Han, I mean I knew it was what you always wanted to do, but these, they are amazing."

"Thank you. I tried to go old Hollywood glam with them, like Marilyn and Audrey..."

"I see, they are really gorgeous." Aria says "What about the guys?"

"The guys, Caleb will be in an ivory tailored suit with a darker champagne almost khaki color tie and pocket square. The other guys will wear tailored suits as well, in the darker color like Caleb's tie and their ties will be ivory. I've got those all drawn out too but suits are boring. I meet Estelle in two days so don't let me forget to get their measurements before you leave."

"Where is yours? Can we see yours?" Aria asks, her eyes light up.

"Oh. Mine is not on there, I didn't want to chance Caleb seeing it." Hanna says as she stands as walks to get her bag "Oh, by the way speaking of the guys...Caleb is only asking his dad Jamie, Ezra and Toby. So Spence you will walk with Toby, and Aria you'll be with Ezra. Now Em and Ali you two can duke it out or play rock paper scissors or however you want to settle it but one of you will have the cutest date there, the other will have to walk with Caleb's dad. He's a good looking older man and all, but I have a feeling both of you will want to carry Kenzie."

"So you're short a groomsman?" Spence asks

"Yeah well. You guys are really the only people we talk to. Only other dude Caleb has talked to recently is Lucas, and it really awkward when he came by and visited us when we were in the hospital.." Hanna says with a shake of her head "I mean, don't get me wrong Lucas is sweet and he has always been a pretty decent friend to Caleb, but he acts so awkward towards us sometimes. It's like he is still not over high school. And his two half brothers will still be in school so they are staying in California with their dad."

The girls all shake their heads in agreement

"Anyways, so yeah...we have one less groomsman and I want Kenzie to be up there with us so one of you two lucky ladies gets to carry her, the other is stuck with my father in law. Have fun figuring that one out."

She says as she walks out of the room, leaving Emily and Ali to bickering over who gets the baby. She walks out to the car and grabs the wedding bag out of the backseat. As she makes her way back into the house she can still hear them

"But what if I want to hold her Em?" Alison pleads and it makes Hanna laugh

"Well we will just have to let Hanna decide." Emily says pointedly just as Hanna rounds the counter

"Oh no ya don't I am not going there." Hanna says with a shake of her head "You guys can straighten that one out."

"I wouldn't mind trading in Toby for her. I am just saying.." Spencer throws her two cents into the fight as she baby talks with Kenzie

Hanna digs through the bag, pulling out the folder and laying down the two drawings she did of the suits for the guys "There those are." she says as she digs through the folder for her dress sketch.

As she pulls the last piece of paper out of the folder she begins to panic.

 _Crap! Have I pulled it out and forgotten to put it back in here? No...last time I saw it was last night...but did I scan it? Maybe it's in the office._

"Well, hang on. Maybe I left it in the office." she gets up and walks into the office. Shuffling the papers around, nothing. Finally a sinking feeling sets in, and she then knows where it is.

 _A, dammit._

She walks out of the office and straight into the kitchen, stopping at the breakfast bar and picking up her phone. She holds her breath as she flips her phone around. It shows one unread text message. She closes her eyes as she slides her phone open to her text screen. When she opens them, the screen reads

 **Missing something? XoXo- A**

She gasps as she clicks on the picture attached, but she already knows what it is. When it comes up there is a black leather gloved hand holding the sketches of her wedding dress.

"NO!" she screams at her phone screen, startling everybody. The girls jump up and come to her as Kenzie begins to cry.

"Hanna, what is it?" Emily asks

Caleb, Toby and Ezra all burst in through the door, startled as well by the sudden outburst.

"Babe, what's going on?" Caleb asks as he takes the crying baby from Spencer and begins to bounce her in his arms.

"A has my wedding dress sketches." she says as she finally looks up from her phone to them, with tears in her eyes.

"What? How could A have gotten them?" Aria asks

"I don't know. They bag has been in the house since I got it a couple weeks ago...until today. Crap! I took it with us today to the grocery store..but I we didn't have any issues. Nothing was missing and the car was like we left it when we went in. Unless..." she trails off as a look of horror washes over her face

"Unless what?" Toby asks, his police instincts kicking in.

She closes her eyes in on Caleb who stands looking at her, mirroring her same look of horror.

"Unless they've been in the house." he whispers

Hanna shakes her head in his direction, as her hands flies up to her mouth. Everybody shoots each other questioning looks. They stand in silence for what seems to Hanna like hours. Finally her phone buzzes in her hand again, making her jump.

"Is that another one?" Spencer asks as she slowly makes her way to Hanna

Unable to speak Hanna shakes her head and hands her phone over to Spencer as she walks over to Caleb and Kenzie.

 _A has been in our house...in OUR house, with our daughter. inside._

She thinks as she begins to sob and folds herself into Caleb's free arm. He looks towards Spencer who holds the phone now reading the text message.

"Spence, what's it say?" Caleb asks as he wraps his arms around Hanna protectively.

Spencer swallows before she begins to read "Want them back? Meet me at the old Sullivan Warehouse. 7 PM. See you soon. - A" Spencer looks up from the phone with a scared, wary look in her eyes.

Suddenly four other notification sounds go off and the rest of the girls reach for their phones.

"This is getting boring so I'm done playing games bitches. Tag along to find out more - A" Aria whispers


	21. Chapter 21

**Eh, I am just not fully confident in this Chapter, honestly.**

 **Stick with me guys, I promise I will be back to just a Haleb story line in the coming chapters. Let's get on with this wedding, shall we? :)**

* * *

"This is getting boring so I'm done playing games bitches. Tag along to find out more - A" Aria whispers.

They all exchanges glances once more, but remain silent.

"Absolutely not." Caleb finally says, as he can tell that the girls are actually thinking about it. They all turn and look at him in confusion "No. You are not going to some abandoned warehouse to meet with this A - or whatever they think they are doing."

Hanna shoots Caleb a look. "Don't look at me like that Han, I will not let you do this. I don't care what A has or doesn't have. You will not go there alone. I'm sure Ezra and Toby feel the same way I do." he nods in the direction of the other two boys that shake their heads in agreement.

"Yeah I agree. I mean this could be dangerous. A meetings haven't always been nice and friendly." Ezra says with a look towards Aria.

"But did none of you hear that? A is tired of playing games...maybe if we go, they will finally leave us alone..." Hanna pleads

"Or they will kill us all and we won't have to worry about it anymore." Emily deadpans

"Not helping Em." Ali says under her breath "Look, I agree with Hanna maybe if we go then we can finally end this...hold that A has on us."

"Yeah, I don't want you guys going into this alone and being blindsided." Toby says "As much as I want this to end FOR you, I don't want it to be the end OF you."

Spencer glances up from the phone she still holds in her hand "Fine. We won't go. Han, we will help you with your dress, A can have those sketches."

"Yeahhh, we're not gonna believe that, sorry." Toby says and now Spencer shoots him a look "What? You don't think we've learned from our mistakes before? You girls will try to play superhero and do it yourself, and it's not going to happen."

Hanna stands in a daze her eyes fixed on the floor then suddenly she looks up "Wait. He just said end for us...and A just texted you guys too..." she shoots her gaze up to Aria who stands directly in front of her "You've been getting texts too, haven't you?" Aria gives her a deer in the headlights look but remains silent. Hanna turns her icy stare to Spencer, and then Emily and Ali on the other side of the room "All of you have, haven't you?" They remain silent "HAVEN"T YOU?" she screams making everyone jump.

"Han, you had so much going on...we didn't want to make you anymore paranoid. Our texts started after yours did and you two were so freaked out, we didn't want to make it harder on you."

Hanna gasps "Oh my god." and throws her hand up to her forehead "This whole time...I thought that A was just after my family...but you guys have been targeted too...and you've been busting your asses for us, but wouldn't tell me.." she begins to cry "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"We didn't want you to worry about us and Kenzie. You and Caleb have enough on your hands with a newborn so we've been handling the situation as best as we could." Aria says as she reaches out for Hanna's arm.

"I need...I just need some air." Hanna says as she backs out of the room throwing her hands up as she heads for the stairs

"Hanna wait..." Spencer calls out

"We got it." Aria says as she and Ali follow behind her up the stairs.

Caleb stands still, frozen as he holds Kenzie and when the door closes upstairs he jumps. Spencer and Emily round the bar and come to him "She's been very emotional since having Kenzie..she'll be crying here in a minute so don't get your feelings too hurt that she's pissed right now." He gives them a nervous chuckle "You, uh...you've been dealing with this too? You should've told me." he walks over to put a Kenzie down on her mat behind him and turns back to the girls, "I wouldn't have said anything to her..but I wouldn't have asked you to keep such a close eye on the girls, either had I known..."

He turns to Toby and Ezra, his eyes wide with panic "I'm sorry...had I known, I would have never asked them to come here every day."

Toby walks over to where Caleb stands and puts his hand down on his shoulder "No man, you need to hear it all."

"A hasn't been sending us threatening texts like Hanna has gotten; A has been sending us texts ABOUT Hanna." Emily says really quietly "It's not the same person, or the same motive. We think they are only out for her. We just happen to be collateral damage so to speak."

 _After Hanna? Collateral damage?_

He swallows hard "What do you mean?"

"We didn't tell her because we didn't want her to freak out...we've been trying to figure out who's been sending them, but so far we haven't found out anything..." Spencer adds

"They've been coming from a burner phone, we traced as much as we could." says Toby with a shrug

"A couple of the texts came from an online text app that was sent from an IP address at The Brew...I've been looking through the security footage but there are at least 30 people on laptops at all times so it's been tough." Ezra says

"How do either of you even know-" Caleb asks in confusion but is cut off by Toby

"What can I say? You rub off on us after time?"

They offer Caleb a reassuring smile and laugh to lighten the mood but he doesn't buy it. He sighs "So pretty much what you're saying is that they are up there telling Hanna about it now and her mama bear instincts are going to kick in and this is a battle with her I won't win, right?"

"Pretty much…" Spencer says "Look, we wouldn't let anything happen to her so if we have to go and see what's up then we will. We just wanted you to know that this A or whatever might not deal with us…they might want to deal with her specifically."

He stands there as he hears the door from upstairs open and the sound of feet coming down the hallway as a very fast pace. "Hanna, wait…Hanna!" Ali yells pleading.

"Here we go" he whispers and straightens himself up, Spencer and Emily do the same, following his lead.

As she rounds the stairs she calls out "Caleb!" and as she turns the corner into the living room where they stand "This person is just after me…they aren't after the girls…just me…" she stops when she notices the girls expressions "but apparently you already knew that…why am I the last one to know?"

He reaches out to grab her hand and pulls her into his arms.

"I just found out too…don't be mad with them, they were just trying to protect you, and protect Kenz" he kisses her forehead and turns his attention back to the others "What do you suggest we do?"

They all exchange planes, then look to Toby. He rolls his eyes "Okay, here is what we can do."

It is just starting to get dark when the girls pull up outside the old warehouse. The clock on the dash of Spencer's SUV reads 6:50 PM.

"With a few minutes to spare…" Hanna says with a chuckle "How did we end up here? I don't know what I did to get this started again, but I am so sorry. Before we go in, I uh just want you ladies to know" she stops to steady her breathing and to choke back the tears that threaten to surface "I want you to know that I love you all so very much and I appreciate everything you have done for me.."

"Hanna-" Emily starts but is cut off

"Please, Em…just lettme get this out before the dam breaks." she says with a nervous chuckle as she wipes the stray tears from her eyes. "If something happens in here and one of you gets hurt, I will never forgive myself so…don't play the hero. If it goes sideways please take care of my daughter…and Caleb." she out a sob "Please just make sure they are taken care of and let them know that I love them."

Ali reaches out and puts her hand on Hanna's shoulder "We are not going to let anything happen to you…Hanna Banana"

They all share a laugh through their tears as they all hold hands. Hanna glances back at the clock that now reads 6:55 P.M. and she sighs "Well, it's now or never…let's go kick some A ass." She says as she swings open the door and the girls follow suit.

They walk quietly into the warehouse they grasp each other's hands. Looking around the warehouse is completely empty except for machines that no longer work and are covered in cobwebs. They each look in different directions, keeping an eye out for any movement that may take them by surprise.

"Why does A always have to come out to play in places that give me hives?" Emily whispers to Ali who stands beside her.

"Because we can't exactly catch up over dinner and a movie…" Spencer whispers back in response.

An alarm goes off, making the girls cover their ears as it echoes through the empty warehouse. "What is going on?" Aria yells as she looks around at the other girls. Suddenly the sound cuts off, leaving their ears ringing. As they take their hands off their ears and look around.

"I think A just hit the snooze." Hanna whispers

They hear a noise of movement behind them makes them swing around to see a hooded figure between them and the door. Alison and Spencer move in front of Hanna and Aria and Emily stand on either side of her. The figure turns and moves towards them, with their head down, their face in the shadows.

"Who are you?" Alison calls out

"And what do you want with us." Spencer says as she throws out protectively in front of the rest of the girls.

The figure walks slowly towards them, not saying a word until they are a few feet away from the group. Slowly they tilt their head up, but not enough to show their face. "Last time I checked, I just wanted her." The male voice says as he points at Hanna behind the group. "But she doesn't go anywhere without the rest of you…or….Caleb" he says, throwing extra disgust on his name.

Hanna stands there completely still, she slams her eyes shut as he speaks…thinking back into her mind.

 _I know that voice, I know that voice…_

"Come on Hanna…don't play dumb, you know exactly who I am…" he says as he walks towards them again, very slowly veering to one side as if to go around them. They turn as a unit around with him, keeping Hanna in the middle.

Suddenly she gasps as his voice registers and she throws her eyes open and looks at him.

"There it is…who am I?" he asks. She remains silent and stands staring at him unable to find her voice. "WHO AM I HANNA?" he screams and it makes them jump back in defense.

She swallows hard and forced the words out of her mouth "Travis..." she whispers then clears her throat to speak louder "Travis."

"Wait. Travis as in Travis Hobbs, Travis?" Spencer asks as she glances towards Hanna who shakes her head yes. Spencer turns her glance back to him as she still stands in front of them. "Why are you doing this? You were always so nice."

He drops the hood from his head and stares back at them "Bingo." And a sly grin creeps onto his face "Bet you never thought you would see me again, did you? You see, that's part of the problem…I was always so nice. So nice in fact that certain…people…felt that they could just use me until it was no longer convenient for them and then they do away with poor NICE Travis." He says as he walks around them again, making them all move around with him.

"That was a long time ago, and why are you just now getting pissed about that?" Ali asks in her bitchy Alison tone.

"And it was - " Hanna starts but he cuts her off.

"Mutual? No, you see I put my neck on the line for you and your mother-all of it was for you. And everything was all fine until Caleb rolled back up into town and all of a sudden there is no use for Travis. So, you technically didn't give me any choice."

"And it was years ago, why the sudden need for revenge?"

"Oh, baby. You've got this all wrong…it may have been a long time ago, and I have had years to stew over this…but you see there was so much drama that surrounded the five of you while you were here…so getting revenge was pretty pointless. You wouldn't know who it was behind it. Plus, you weren't the one that I wanted revenge against."

Hanna swallows "Caleb is."

"Exactly. Then you two left town and I had no idea where you went, so I let it go. The next thing I know you're back and you're getting married and having a baby and living the life that I should have had with you…WE should have had together." He shakes his head "and that REALLY pisses me off." He says through gritted teeth.

"It was so easy to hide behind A…since you had so much experience with it…but I didn't quite think it through because you girls have dealt with A for so long…after I messed with you in the hospital, everybody started babying poor Hanna and there was not a moment that I could get to you." He says as he takes a few forward "Because trust me…I had so much more planned." He takes another step forward and they step back as a group "Even now, I knew I would never get you here alone without your minions coming too…but why don't you send them on out of here so we can talk more privately?"

The girls look at each other as Hanna swallows, never taking her eyes off of Travis "Girls, I've got this…"

"What? Han, no!" Spencer says as she swings her head around "We are not leaving you here alone."

"Spence, just go. I will handle it" Hanna says as she lets go of Aria and Emily's hands "Just GO." They shoot each other questioning looks and Hanna nods her head "Just go, remember to do what I said earlier. I will be fine. Just go."

 _Come on girls, just like we talked about...don't play the hero._

The girls turn back towards the door and start to walk out, offering one last glance in Hanna's direction before they start to run out of the warehouse. Hanna watches them as they get out of the door, before turning her stare back to him.

"What is it that you want Travis? And just for the record, when Caleb came back - he didn't want to come in between us. He said you were a nice guy and I was the one that told him there was no you and I with him here."

The girls run out of the building and to Spencer's SUV parked out in front of the building. Caleb now sits crouched in the backseat with his laptop in his hand. He looks up as the girls make it to the car. He opens the door and climbs out "What's going on? Where is Hanna?" he asks

"It's. Travis." Aria says in between deep breathes.

"Travis?" he asks, confused "Travis? What does he want?"

"Don't know…but I think he is still pretty pissed about what happened in high school How far out is Toby?" Spencer asks as she looks around

"He had them park down the road so they wouldn't be noticed and come in through the woods when I told him you had went in. What did he say he wanted with Hanna?"

"He didn't. He just asked to talk to her alone and she told us to leave." Ali says as she looks back to the warehouse

Caleb looks at them and then back to the warehouse "Okay look, I am going to see what is going on. You stay out here. My laptop is right here and Toby's tracking device is pulled up, they should be getting here soon...just stay with it and be careful."

They shake their heads in unison and Caleb turns to hit to the large bay doors of the warehouse. He walks lightly and as he gets closer to the building he can hear the muffled voices inside. He stands near the door that is propped open and listens.

"Why mess with my baby Travis?" Hanna asks "She is just a baby.."

"Oh come on, all I did was move her from one crib to another..I didn't actually harm her in any way. I just wanted to see if Caleb could find her. I was hoping that he would choke and you would think he was a terrible father and then I was going to swoop in..be the shoulder you could cry on. When he was gone I was going to make sure you knew you could always come to me." He reaches out to stroke her face but she moves quickly out of reach of him. "Hanna, come on...I would never hurt you, you know that. I love you."

He reaches for her again and this time she moves but he catches her arm and it makes her scream. Caleb moves at lightening speed from his spot outside the door and moves inside the building. "TRAVIS!" he screams as he looks around, he spots them standing in the center of the warehouse. He slowly makes his way around the machines to where they stand. Travis has both arms wrapped around Hanna, holding her to his chest but his glare bores into Caleb as he rounds a conveyor machine. "Hanna, are you okay?" he asks calmly as he holds his hand out in front of him as if to calm Travis down.

Hanna shakes her head yes as he speaks to Caleb "Well, how did I know good ole lover boy would come to her rescue?"

"Look, you have made it clear that this is about me and not her...let's just let her go on out with the rest of the girls and you can deal with this with me."

"Caleb! What are you doing?" Hanna cries

Travis looks from Hanna and then back to Caleb who gives him a 'its now or never' look. He looks back down at Hanna and lets her go, pushing her a little towards the door. She reaches for Caleb's arms and he grasps her face in his hands "Are you okay?" he asks and she shakes her head yes "Look, go on out to the car with the girls." he says as he directs her towards the door never taking his eyes off of Travis standing in front of him

"Caleb, no please don't do this. I love you."

"Hanna I love you too, just GO!" he yells at her as he glances in her direction.

Suddenly Toby appears in the doorway "Rosewood PD! Hands up!" he yells into the building and they all throw their hands up. Hanna glances at Caleb and exhales who returns her look of relief at the sight of Toby.

 _Took you long enough Officer Cavanaugh._

Travis shoots a glance in their direction and then turns to run out the back of the building. Toby runs behind him, chasing him through the warehouse. He has just reached the back door leading out of the warehouse and opens it Lorenzo clotheslines him, knocking him square on his back on the asphalt. When Toby reaches them he flips him onto his stomach and begins to read him his rights as he slaps handcuffs on his wrists. They picks him up off the ground and walk him back through the warehouse and out the front doors. When he passes Hanna and Caleb who now stand in each others arms, Hanna crying to Caleb's chest he gives them an icy glare.

They follow behind the officers out of the building and the girls run to them, hugging them both. Once Toby has Travis situated in the back of the car he walks up to the group, giving Spencer a hug as he walks up to them.

"Hanna, we have a female officer here that will take out down to the station and get the wire off of you. We don't know what we have right now but we should have enough to charge him."

She shakes her head but never says anything.

"Can I ride with her?" Caleb asks

"Yeah, you can ride with her. Spence you can follow us to pick them up from the station once we've gotten all the statements. You girls will have to turn over your phones and have to give some statements yourself. We just want to make sure we have enough to keep him. It won't take us very long and we can get you out so you can go get Kenzie from your mom's, Han. Let me round up the guys and we will head out." he says as he walks off from the group.

"So it's really over?" Emily asks as she rests her head on Ali's shoulder as they all face the squad car in from of them

Hanna hugs Caleb tighter to her as she watches Travis through the back window of the police cruiser "Yeah..it is." . She glances up at him and kisses his chin "I am so sorry about this."

Caleb chuckles "Hey, it was just another day in Rosewood." he says then kisses her forehead.


	22. Chapter 22

**So, most of you have already read that last chapter wasn't really my best work...at least I didn't think so..anyway it caused me to lose a little bit of creativity with this story so I took a break from it. I've had some of you have asked when I would update so I cut this chapter short so I could get an update out there for you guys. It's a smaller chapter but I will have another up soon. Let me know what you think...**

 **Also, if you have any ideas that you would like to see me incorporate into this story to make it more interesting or anything you would like to see happen (besides wedding obviously because we are getting to that SOON, I promise) just let me know!**

* * *

She sits in a chair behind a metal table facing a glass window in an interview room, Caleb beside her. He has his arms wrapped around her rubbing her shoulders over the blanket that is wrapped around her. They sit in silence, him afraid to say anything and break down Hanna's tough wall she has put up over the last few hours; her afraid to say anything to him about the situation they are currently in...afraid that it may all be her fault.

 _Travis...Travis...I just can't believe it was Travis.._

She thinks before the door swings open and makes her jump. She pulls her gaze from the table where she has focused her eyes to look up at Toby as he enters the room. He looks at each of them with sympathetic eyes before turning back to Caleb "I really hate to do this right now but I need to speak with Hanna...alone, please?"

"No." Caleb adamantly answers as he stands and points down at the table "No. Anything you need to say to her, you can say in front of me. Don't push me Toby, just don't."

A small smile spreads out over his face and he kind of chuckles "Easy Rambo. I just...I have something here that she's been looking for" he says as he holds up a folder and shakes it at him "And last time I checked, she was trying keep it under wraps."

Caleb's face softens and he turns back to Hanna who quietly giggles at the two boys "I'm good babe. It's just Toby. Can you just give us a minute and call mom to check on Kenz?"

He shakes his head yes and bends to kiss her forehead. He shakes Toby's hand before leaving the room, shutting the door behind him when he leaves.

Hanna lets out a breathe and sags in her chair as Toby sits down across the table from her. "You okay Han?" he quietly asks

"Yeah, I just...I can't wrap my mind around it. I don't know why..." she trails off

"Most of the time, we can't know why when it comes to these situations. What I can tell you is that Travis is talking, fessing up to everything. The messages, Kenzie, taking this." he says as she slides the folder across the table to her "Good news about this is he said he took it out of the Jeep while you were at the grocery store so he hasn't been in your house."

A small gasp escapes her mouth at the news as she opens the folder and looks at the sketch of her wedding dress inside.

"Apparently he still works for his dad so he has access to all the things he needs and he knows how to pop locks so he just followed you guys there and when you went in, he opened it and got it out...he told us that, so no need to feel unsafe in your home...that's the good news."

She clears her throat "So, what are you going to do about all of this? Will you be able to hold him?"

"I wish I could say for sure that I did, but I don't know yet. I will have to consult with the officers and see...they are pretty much keeping me out of it, since I was involved closely...but I do think that we have enough."

She shakes her head again and keeps her eyes straight forward, never saying anything.

"Okay, let's uh...let's get you on home. Spence is waiting for you out front with the other girls." he says quietly as Hanna shakes her head again and stands from her chair throwing the blanket off of her shoulders she folds it neatly and sitting it back into the seat.

She starts to walk off, leaving the folder on the table in between the two of them. He picks it up "Hanna. Don't forget this." he says as she turns back to him and he holds up the folder. She smiles and turns to walk back towards him to take it from him when he stops her "I hope you don't mind but I took a peek at it...just to make sure it was what we were looking for..I just have to say. Now, I don't know anything about fashion or wedding dresses...but this is really good and you're gonna make a beautiful bride in a couple weeks. I couldn't be happier for you and Caleb"

Her bottom lip begins to quiver and she looks back at the glass window where she's pretty sure someone is watching. Toby sees her panic and walks over to the glass and bangs on it before turning back to Hanna and reaches for her and her will breaks as she begins to sob.

"Hey...Hey...Shhh...it's okay Han. I won't let them let him go if I can help it." he soothes as he wraps his arms around her shoulders and she buries her face into his chest.

"It's...not...that...I...just.." she tries to say in between sobs. She pulls back from his chest and wipes her eyes with her hand, thankful that she doesn't have on much makeup otherwise she'd look like a clown "I can't keep doing this to him. His life has been a roller coaster for his whole life and he comes here and meets me and I throw all my chaos in his way..I thought that everything was over and that we could move on with our lives, like normal people but then this happens." she said as she paces the floor in front of him before finally stopping "What if he gets tired of this crap and leaves me?" as the words leave her mouth she begins to sob again.

Toby takes a step toward her and grabs her shoulders to stop her "Hey...listen to me...Caleb loves you, and he loves Kenzie...he's not going anywhere." he chuckles before continuing "Besides, lets face it...we've dealt with a lot more than just some crazy exes being involved with you girls." he consoles as he rubs her arms.

Hanna laughs and wipes the tears from her eyes "True.."

"Just do me a favor...please...I've seen how you handle these kinds of things Hanna...don't push him away. Tell him, let him in. I know how he handles these situations too...He's gonna be overly protective and clingy for a while...and with Kenzie involved he's gonna feel like he powerless at keeping you both safe but don't push him away like last time...with the dollhouse. Mostly because we both know he is going to think he's doing the right thing...and because I don't have any room in the bachelor pad for him if you do..."

"I just feel like it's not fair to him to keep dragging him through this over and over again." she whispers as she picks at her shirt.

"Look, this whole situation you have been in...it's not ideal, but trust me when I say that it would be totally unfair for you to push him away again...I'm sure he'd rather tackle A shenanigans and Travis all over again than lose you. Dragging him back through that, will be much worse."

She smiles and looks up at her friend "Thanks T." she says as she says as she wraps her arms around his chest and hugs him tightly again. He hugs her back and pats her back.

The door opening makes them jump as Caleb pokes his head inside "Okay guys, this is taking a lot longer than it should." he says as he walks back into the room, shutting the door behind him "Everything okay?" he asks as he looks at Toby and then back to Hanna.

She sucks in a deep breath "Yeah, everything is fine. Tobes was just having a girl moment with me. Did you call mom? How's Kenz?"

"I uh, I did. Kenz is good but mama bear is pissed that she was kept in the dark...you're in big trouble young lady." he says trying to lighten up the mood.

"Aren't I always?" she responds with a roll of her eyes. "Come on, let's go..I am ready to get my lecture over with and take prissy home."

Caleb puts his hand on the small of her back as they turn to walk out the door.

"Hey Caleb, can I talk to you for just a second?" Toby calls out as they stop and turn around to face him "A guy moment is just as important as the girl moment.."

Caleb glances down at Hanna and then back up "Can I just call you later?"

Hanna reaches for his hand "I'll be fine babe. I will just go sit with the girls until you guys get done. It's no big deal...really."

He stares down at her, almost searching her eyes to make sure she is telling the truth "You sure?"

"Yes, I am."

"Okay." he says as he bends down to kiss her forehead "I won't be long."

Hanna opens the door and he watches her as she walks out of the room and shuts the door behind her. He turns to back to Toby "Hey man, look...thanks for today. You don't know how much we appreciate it."

"No problem. Comes with the badge...but mostly with the friendship. But that isn't what I wanted to talk to you about..." he sits back on the table behind him and crosses his arms before continuing "Look, I don't want to intrude on personal business or anything...but you know what she's gonna do now -"

"Yeah...yeah I do." he interrupts as he brings his hand to his head and rubs his temples "And I have no idea how I am going to -"

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about.." he says as Caleb glances back up at him "Just try to keep yourself calm about it. Freaking out will only make it worse...just when you go home, take care of her and Kenzie...don't go overboard...and don't worry about this situation. I will handle this...and I won't let him out of here easily, I promise. "

"They teach you that in academy?" Caleb jokes

"No...I've just learned the hard way from many years in the A-cademy." he laughs

Caleb sticks his hand out "You're a damn good man Officer Cavanaugh." he says as Toby takes his hand and he pulls him into a man hug "And you're an even better friend." he pulls back "Thank you."

"Any time...Now, go get that precious daughter of yours and I will see you guys on Monday. We all still on for lunch at The Radley?"

"As far as I know...it's wedding coordinator day so come prepared to be measured, bombarded with flower choice questions and cake tastings."

Caleb opens the door and both of the guys walk out into the office where the officers all sit and do their paperwork. Caleb turns to the right to walk down the hall to the front door where the girls should be waiting. He has the fight the rage that builds in his chest when he passes the door to the room where he saw them take Travis. Toby puts his hand down hard on Caleb shoulder and it makes him turn his head to face his friend following behind him.

"Not worth it man." he says and Caleb shakes his head in agreement as they keep walking

When they reach the front of the station the girls all sit on a bench quietly talking while Hanna paces in front of them on her cellphone, obviously getting an ear full from what Caleb assumes is Ashley on the other end of the line.

"Yes mom. I know...I know, stupid..dangerous...I've heard it already." she says as she looks up and sees him standing in the entryway. She holds up one finger and continues talking "I know mom, I know...NO! Don't call dad...because...because I don't want to talk to him, that's why. Look, Caleb is out so we are about to leave. I will see you in 15? Okay, take care of Kenzie for me. Love you too. Bye" she hangs up and rolls her eyes.

She looks up and points at Caleb "You're so going in and getting Kenzie...I do not want to deal with angry Ashley right now." she huffs and throws her hand up to her forehead "You ready to go?" she asks him.

"Yeah, I am...I'm ready to get my girls home." he says and offers her a smile, his eyes warn and caring

For a moment, it's as if they aren't standing in a police station surrounded by all of their friends after all being questioned about a crazy stalker ex boyfriend. For a moment, its just her and him and the love between them makes everything else fade away.

She smiles back at him.

 _Don't push him away, don't push him away...let him in...no more dollhouse..._

* * *

 **Side note : Can I just say how much I love the Caleb/Toby bromance? I will be really sad if he is no longer on the show.**


End file.
